Sainsbury's Dorking

We have three hubs located in central Dorking, Goodwyns and Leatherhead. where we put good, surplus food which local people can take. Our mission is to reduce surplus food from being wasted and to make it available to our community. We collect daily from local supermarkets, and also collect food from FareShare, for which we pay a fee. Since 2017 we have saved 1,737 tonnes of food from being thrown away! COVID We changed our operation to food parcel delivery to people referred to us by statutory agencies and the community. We now have 3 static fridge sites: Dorking, Goodwyns and Leatherhead and we have a Mobile Fridge on the road serving rural Mole Valley. The point is to reduce food waste, and happily, we are also reaching those in our community who find themselves in food poverty.

Operating primarily within the most underserved postcode of Chessington within the Royal Borough of Kingston, New Era was conceived by a group of like-minded people based on one man’s intuitive vision; to attempt to ensure that our grandchildren and subsequent generations can enjoy this incredible world in safety and to eliminate the dilemma of 'Heat or Eat.' We provide any useable items that are discarded by retailers to others without asking them to meet with any criteria (our sole purpose is that of offering hope to those who have little and don't know where to find any, completely free of all judgement.) We also have a large contingent of users who visit our projects to save food from landfill. There is no charge made for any of our redistributed produce. We use some free surplus food within our three Square 1 Cafes, where 'everyone is welcome and everything is free.' These are safe, secure environments that promote togetherness and friendship and help those dealing with social isolation. https://www.facebook.com/groups/square1cafe We continue to distribute surplus food and pantry items collected via supermarket Customer Donation Points to our Community Fridge located at St Mary's Centre in Chessington, helping those living in one of the most underserved postcodes within the Royal Borough of Kingston. Open Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10AM until 1PM. All of our projects hold a 5* Food Hygiene Rating from Kingston Environmental Health Office. As of February 2026 we rely on some 67 volunteers providing 255 hours PER WEEK across our venues. Our newest project SKY Cafe is dedicated to our young carers' within the community and operates every month from our base at St Mary's Centre in Chessington. Food, activities and much fun and laughter is the order of the day.

The Meeting Place was founded in 2011 with the principle aim of reducing social isolation. A coffee shop was set up in January 2012 with soft play facilities to encourage young mums and child carers to come in and stay as long as they liked. The older generation also enjoyed coming into a place where there was no time pressure. Since that time we have started up a language hub to assist those whose English is a second language and may be struggling in confidence and finding friends. We have also arranged lip reading classes for those struggling with communicating as deafness begins to limit them. In 2019 The Meeting Place agreed with the idea of having a Community Fridge, principally to reduce food waste, to be available at the times the Coffee Shop was open, initially this started on a small scale in January 2020. When the Coronavirus situation changed peoples lives we felt that we wanted to support the people who had been using the Fridge by delivering a bag of food to their door. This has grown from supporting 20 Families in March to over 170 at the present time. Most of our growth has resulted from professional referrals due to financial hardship or shielding.