ALDI NEWPORT - ALBANY ST

We love Maindee - but it needs a boost. So a group of local residents and partner organisations formed Maindee Unlimited in 2014 to pool our resources and skills. Our Aim is the promotion for the benefit of the public of urban or rural regeneration in areas of social and economic deprivation (and in particular in Newport East) Some of our highlights are: Re-opened Llyfrgell Maindee Library in 2015 Completed a £200,000 library refresh in 2019 Edible Incredible Maindee are improving outdoor spaces Building work on the redevelopment of Maindee Triangle will finish in 2021/22 and the Charity is now finalising the sub-lease arrangements for the café operator. The Charity is now planning a programme of outdoor markets and other events on The Triangle for 2022. Early in January 2022, the charity are opening Maindee Community Pantry. A Community fridge where everyone can share surplus food, including donations from local food businesses, producers, households and gardens.

Help for All Gwent is a local voluntary group that accepts donations from the local community and donate to people in need. This includes essential items such as food, clothing and household items. We work closely with a local charity that donates furniture to families in need and help people in crisis with sourcing clothes and furniture. Families can register with Help For All Gwent to receive weekly or biweekly food parcels. The group is run by volunteers who collect food from Sainsbury’s and Aldi. The food is then distributed to families who can either collect or have delivered to them if they have no means of transport. We work closely with other local charities and community groups and cover each other's food collections if needed. Volunteers have completed basic food safety training to enable them to.distribute all food collected and understand the importance of food safety.

Our grass roots, not for profit group has been set up entirely by volunteers living in the community we want to support, in response to the cost of living crisis and the post-Covid loneliness epidemic. We have big plans and have started with a Community Pantry. In the 4 weeks we have been operational, we have signed up 58 households in the neighbourhood and distributed close to 300kg of food, much of which would otherwise have gone to landfill. We have sourced the food from supermarket partners set up via Neighbourly. The project has been extremely well received by the community, but at the moment we are working from a temporary base while we arrange funding for more permanent premises, which we hope to set up on our local allotments site. Once we have our own space, we have ambitious plans for cook-a-longs, social gatherings for those isolated people in our community and pop-up sessions with other local support groups, energy providers, councillors and charities.