Sainsbury's Stanway

We have been allowed to use a small building in the centre of the town by a local businessman to house the fridge. The local East of England co-op has funded half the cost of our fridge. A local sign company has made us a banner free of charge. We have all the local supermarkets and cafes on board and we launched on 13 August 2018 Any uneaten or inedible food that we have is taken to a pig farmer who is grateful for the extra food for his pigs.. We are inspected for Hygiene by Braintree District council, and recently satisfactorily completed their Hygiene questionnaire. In January we welcomed a group of year 6 pupils from the local Holy Trinity school to the fridge, in order for them to learn about the fridge and its aim of preventing food waste. This was reported in the local paper. Last spring I gave a talk on the fridge and its work to the local Rotary club and this was much appreciated and resulted in a donation. We are now part of a body of local charities and voluntary organisations in the town who are working more closely together. These include the Rotary, the Mensshed, choirs, dementia friendly organisations, and many others. There is a get together for all these groups on 7/4/25 at the Annual Town meeting, where local residents can discuss what the town needs.

From August 2021, we welcome 32 families who came from Afghanistan after the Taliban problem in Kabul. We work with the local churches and local community groups to support us with donations for newly arrived families. The churches have been very supportive for the mission. St. John the Baptist church at Mt Bures, Hope Community Witham, Castle Methodist church, Fordham church and most of the local community groups in Colchester. We visit the newly arrived families after they got home from the refugee centre, which they provided them with basic items such as: fridge, freeze, washing machine, cooker, sofas and a bed. We are involved with these newly arrived families to provide them with all their needs, like: clothes, shoes, toys for the children, food in a weakly basis, kitchen devices, beddings, gardening tools, hoovers, mirrors and hair driers and we visit them regularly to support them and give them advise for education and NHS and the rest of the rules in UK. We also connected them with families through churches, so they can befriend them rather than being isolated. All of our services to our clients are provided free of charge.

- Community fridge and food pantry -Cooking clubs -improving well being - The general public/mankind - Provides advocacy/advice/information The Boaz Project operates a community fridge and food pantry from the address: Customs House, Hythe Quay. Colchester. CO2 8JB The Boaz Project has both the Greenstead and Hythe in Colchester for four years, including all through the lockdown and is well known in Colchester. Unfortunately Greenstead falls within the ten percent most deprived communities in the UK and food need a major issue. Individuals and families in difficulty are referred to us from various organizations and professionals and can self-refer. We prioritize getting to know why people need us in the first place, which help us to know how best to support them. We provide support with benefit reviews, we run cooking skills sessions regularly, through our various schemes, such as the Slow cooker club, Wok club etc. These teach people how to shop affordably and make use of food items in their cupboard and or fridge that they will not normally use. We provide befriending practical support and reduce loneliness through our Neighborhood chaplaincy project. All our services and provisions are free of charge to every member of the community who need it. We currently collect surplus food from Fareshare through Foodiverse but recent rapid increase in the number of people needing our support means that we need more food Please see a post to a local press release that demonstrates our organisation's work in the local community: https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20126851.colchester-boaz-project-community-fridge-free-food/