Sainsbury's West Croydon Station Local

This project supports the fantastic work that Palmer House does for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. I have been collecting food for this purpose for some ten years! Based in Croydon, Palmer House supports 60 single people up to 65 years of age with complex needs including experience of homelessness or rough sleeping, substance misuse and mental ill health. Customers are referred to Palmer House by the London Borough of Croydon and stay up to two years. The charity empowers them to make decisions about their support, including choosing their Support Worker. This person centred approach enables customers to identify their existing strengths and skills so they can achieve their goals and aspirations. The team at Palmer House believes customers can move beyond their current support needs and achieve their full potential by developing new skills and accessing opportunities. Whilst at Palmer House, customers engage in developing life and independent living skills including developing routine and structure, fostering positive relationships, healthy eating and cooking.

Each week we collect excess fresh food from local supermarkets, including Waitrose, Tesco, Aldi and M&S Food. This is usually food that is approaching its shelf-life and cannot be sold. Every Saturday afternoon we distribute this healthy food to local families and individuals in Croydon from our distribution point in Thornton Heath. We take referrals from Social Services, schools, family centres and medical centres. We also accept self-referrals from clients who can demonstrate they are on benefits, low income or otherwise in need. Our aim is to enable disadvantaged people and families to maintain a healthy diet while on a low income or no income at all. We also increase awareness of the problem of plastic pollution by encouraging clients to bring their own bags, by giving out re-cyclable bags ourselves and by distributing as much food as possible without plastic packaging.

We at Guiding Hands aim to encourage and inspire lifelong learning and support positive life choices, whilst promoting resilience through tailored training, mentoring and personal development, doing this through our program Foodie Friday encouraging all regardless of age, culture or religion in healthy eating and wellbeing choices highlighting the high percentage of children, young people and families living within disadvantage areas of Croydon making unhealthy choices in food and lifestyles due to circumstances. Our main program Foodie Friday has been hugely popular. across the borough - carrying out our work in association with Children centres, schools, local grassroots companies, and supermarkets in delivering a program geared towards healthy eating, making quick, easy healthy dishes, and helping young people to become kitchen confident. for all the family, finding different solutions to adapting common dishes and alternatives to fast foods Fridays and making it a Foodie Friday.