Sainsbury's Sedgefield

The Community Grocery is here to help bring down the cost of the weekly shop for those in our community who are feeling the financial impact of the times we are living through. We offer a £1 yearly membership which means our members can then shop in the Grocery up to five times a week for just £5 each time. Our members also have access to many free courses for anyone interested in Health and well-being, new skills or meeting new people.

Coxhoe and Area Community Pantry's vision is to ensure everyone in Coxhoe and its it's surrounding villages will have access to good food, and help the environment by alleviating food wastage. Our aim is to offer a service which works for the benefit of our local community and we work with residents, local businesses, partners and stakeholders to offer a fit for purpose volunteer operated food resource centre, sourcing and sharing surplus affordable food with those currently experiencing food insecurities, and enabling everyone involved to help our environment by supporting a reduction in food waste. We open twice a week - Monday mornings 9.30am - 11am and Thursday evenings 5pm - 7pm and offer a varied menu determined each week by the donations we receive. We are not discriminatory or judgemental in any way and understand that families and individuals all have different circumstances which finds them having food insecurities; and so we ask our customers to 'pay as they feel' for the food they chose to take. This is done anonymously, in that customers are given a blank envelope when they come in and are asked to contribute however much they can afford (if anything) for the food they receive into the envelope before placing it in a box with all other envelopes We gratefully accept donations of food from our community members and local businesses to help provide this service. We have a storeroom and electrical equipment to ensure we are able to effectively store our donations in a clean and ordered environment, adhering to food guidelines and with food safety being paramount. We highlight any foods which may contain ingredients which may cause food allergies and measure and record food temperatures for our fresh food, as well as monitoring sell by dates If we were to be successful with our application we would use the grant to support our sustainability i.e. help with running costs for our pantry, and for equipment needed to store and distribute food, and for costs associated with storing the food and operating the pantry twice a week, as well as buying any emergency food as well as any emergency food we would need to help support a customer

We are a non for profit community group supporting children and their families in the local area. We offer opportunities and experiences to disadvantaged children and offer support to their families through our new community pantry. This provides families with heavily discounted food, meaning children don’t go hungry due to the cost of living. Surplus food is also donated to our families along with local food banks. Our organisation runs from Ferryhill Sport and Education Centre, another fantastic local charity who we are proud to support and work alongside. Our current users, of over 100 local children, attend our out of school activities where they have the opportunity to try out new activities including sports, cookery, arts, performing and more! Our community pantry will provide these families with discounted food to help with the cost of living crisis. We look forward to being able to help out food in the cupboards of these families. We are working with local primary schools and the one point centre to identify those particularly in need and accept referrals from these organisations. Please see our recent work in the local press, along with financial support from The national lottery community grant plus local town and county councillors. Any surplus food donations we receive through neighboughrly are used in two ways. Some will be added to our community pantry where families can pay a fixed fee to fill their basket, giving the community chance to access needed food at a heavily discounted price. Others will be used directly to families in need giving ready made shopping bags at zero cost to the families.