Sainsbury's Durham

In the North East alone over 800,000 tonnes of food waste is generated every year. That’s over a third of food produced for us to eat. We think that’s rubbish and we hope you agree. We use our cafe as a platform for campaigning and educating people about food waste. All members of the community are welcome and we get up to 600 people through our Cafe per week. We don’t see this food as ‘waste’, we see beautiful and valuable food, and we see the energy, time, fuel, water and other resources that have gone into making it, packaging it and getting it to our supermarket shelves. Join us in giving it value and stopping this waste of resources.

We are a group of friendly volunteers in Great Lumley that provide food hampers to local residents to get them through a few days if they are struggling to make ends meet, isolating or in need of help. We also have a Community Table and Community Fridge where local people can pop in and take donations from local shops and businesses that would otherwise go to landfill. Everything we do is free of charge or on a pay-as-you-feel basis. Any donations we do receive are used to buy stock items for our hampers. We run out of Great Lumley Methodist Church alongside Heaven's Kitchen which provides a lunch project where we provide home-cooked, three course lunches each Tuesday - also on a pay-as-you-feel basis. During the recent lockdown we provided over 9000 meals to the elderly and vulnerable in the community. We are always happy to receive donations of any kind and will ensure that it is distributed to help our community.

We currently operate 4 days a week to over 80 local households, delivering over 1,000 food parcels a month. We have 28 local people involved as volunteers. We appreciate that a regular call from a smiling volunteer who is interested in their well being can make all the difference to people who struggle with social isolation or poverty. We are an established arm of the Gilesgate Residents Association. Our volunteers are connected to 4 local churches, Belmont Labour Group, Belmont Parish Council and Gilesgate Residents Association. When our project started in April, there was no long term plan. Our aim was to reduce social isolation and support people in our local community who were struggling. We helped them get food and other essentials and chatted to people on their doorsteps. We link people up to other local services who can help them. We now collect and redistribute fresh food that cannot be sold and is unwanted by the Foodbanks. We also make jams and chutney using fruit from donations and local allotments. We work with the local food banks, supporting residents to access the service when they are in crisis. We have an organised rota of households we deliver to, including the Durham Women's Refuge in Gilesgate and the DASH Vulnerable Women's project. We also have a food donation point in Sainsbury's in Belmont. People can self-refer by contacting us or others can refer them. The only criteria is they want to receive a visit from us and will be at home when we call. At weekends we set up a production line in the Durham City Baptist Church in Gilesgate and make up food parcels for all the households on our lists. We are always looking for food donations to support our Saturday deliveries.