Lidl Wigan - Woodhouse Lane

Working as a satellite outlet for Wigan's 'Fur Clemt CIC', we are a local community group, run purely by volunteers. We began life at the start of the COVID lockdown, setting up a foodbank to help families and individuals in the community who had been adversely affected by COVID, directly or indirectly, by sending food parcels and arranging shopping services amongst other things. Since the restrictions relaxed, we realised that our recipients wanted more of a choice in affordable food and we also learned more about the extent to which food is sent to landfill through our developing partnership with Fur Clemt CIC. As such, our local pantry formed with 2 primary objectives: - to save good food that is otherwise destined for landfill - to provide good quality yet very affordable food supplies to people experiencing financial hardship. All are welcome to shop at the pantry for a small annual membership fee then an additional small donation per shop. Members who are on certain benefits, in receipt of free school meals for their children or facing financial hardship are able to join free of charge and enjoy a first free shop to get started. We accept Wigan Council food vouchers and also give out our own should members be struggling financially. We also give away some items free of charge, for example if there is a large surplus of a particular item that needs to go, all of our bread, and items donated to us by Neighbourly partners. We are constantly learning and developing and as such, are going from strength to strength to support our community. We have now had over 600 people sign up as members over our 4.5 years in operation, and have 25 regular volunteers who offer time – from as little as an hour when they can to many hours every week.

We are a community project in Wigan dedicated to reducing the amount of edible wasted food reaching landfill. We intercept surplus edible waste food and make it available to our community through our cafes and outlets. In addition we provide cooking classes and educational programs and work with schools and local organisations to educate people about food waste reduction. Although we often support people who need extra help, we are open to everyone. All support is beneficial, including financial help, as well as any food that we can use. 😄

Tom’s Pantry is a food outlet, located in St James Centre, Home of St James With St Thomas Church. We work with The Real Junk Food Project to intercept perfectly edible food, on its way to landfill, and make this available to our local community. As well as being helpful in budgeting we aim to care for our world. We try to educate people that we are helping to save the planet, as well as bringing them good quality food at reasonable prices. We have an annual membership of £5 and then a £3 cost for a shop of 20 items. The items can be chosen by the members themselves to give a sense of a real shop. Our food outlets are open to everyone, there is no need to be referred as we aim to care and share. We are open Tuesday & Wednesday & Friday 9.30-11.30am with friendly volunteers on hand to help people shop. Everyone welcome.