M&S New Milton

Officially launched in November 2020, The Food Rescue was born out of a concern at the amount of food that is being 'wasted' by the supermarkets when there are people struggling to make ends meet. The aim of this group is to rescue 'surplus waste' food from supermarkets and redistribute and/or turn into meals for people struggling to put food on the table - together with showing how to cook basic meals with the ingredients they have available to them. Since its inception The Food Rescue Kitchen has evolved from its humble beginnings of collecting surplus food from a small number of supermarkets and then inviting local families to pick up rescued fruit, vegetables and bread from one of our pop-ups to what it has become today . The majority of the food collected 7 days a week from 7 local supermarkets is now donated to The New Forest Basics Bank in Lymington to go out into their food parcels adding fresh fruit, vegetables and bread to their standard food parcels. The rest is distributed to local families supported by The Food Rescue Kitchen itself, together with producing banana cakes (currently just under 15,000 baked to date!), soups and ready meals which again are donated to The New Forest Basics Bank to add a home cooked meals to their food parcels. From January 2025 when a dedicated space for a food production kitchen was acquired - The Food Rescue Kitchen will evolve again into a bigger food production outlet, producing more ready meals, soups, cake and bakes for the comminuty - launch date TBA. I was awarded Citizen of Brockenhurst 2020 for my work within the community. I was also recently interviewed by BBC Radio Solent to talk about my work within the community. In February 2026 I was given a Community Hero Award by Scrivens Opticians. Follow on Facebook page @thefoodrescuekitchen-feedtheneed Twitter - @Rescuekitchen Instagram - the_food_rescue_kitchen Linkedin - Jane Overall to keep up to date with my journey together with photos, media stories, recipes and tips

Who are WasteNot WantNot (WiN project) We are a community group with a team of volunteers collecting a range of donated and surplus items - from food to household items, toys, flowers, plants and gardening items to decorating items and craft materials. We seek to match what is available with those who need it. Where we are based --- We are based across the Waterside area in the New Forest, near Southampton and serve a number of different communities across the area. How we identify our service users and their needs --- Through strong community links we hear what is needed and by whom. Individuals and households are often referred to us by local contacts - churches, a local preschool and nursery, toddler groups or charity groups such as our local foodbank, a local housing charity and a debt advice and support group. Sometimes through recommendation from our service users new folk will come to see us. What we can offer --- Our aim is to help those most in need first, particularly where food support or additional household things are needed, although anyone is welcome to our larger food share outs to avoid waste. Straight after collecting food we drive into local communities where folk will be waiting at one of our arranged "pop ups". We have several different venues, sharing from a church hall and in other communities from pop up tables. Food is organised and folk are able to choose items that they need or can use. These "pop ups" enable us to get food out rapidly after collecting. Volunteers deliver to some who are housebound. Through chatting to our service users we discover other needs that we can look to help with or recommend them to go to other groups. During school holidays we support a local cooking project with produce who cook and feed families and the housebound. Flowers and plants are delivered to housebound, sick or bereaved folk. Larger plants to school libraries and care homes and other plants to community planting areas. We endeavour to build and strengthen our links with other local groups and charities, sharing and supporting where we can. Relationships built enable us to sign post service users to support groups locally e.g. for debt support, housing issues, mental health support, accessing childrens groups or other charitible groups offering practical support. We are continually developing new ideas to help as many as we can wherever we can. We have a public facebook page - WasteNot WantNot (WiN project) https://www.facebook.com/groups/363922535329538 you can contact us at WNWNproject@outlook.com to find out more about us. Thank you.