Sainsbury's Middleton Park Local

We are a not-for-profit community charity group supporting the people of Dewsbury South, Leeds LS10 and around the world who are in need, including those affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic. To alleviate poverty, illiteracy and sickness by providing support and aid through the provision of food, hygiene, sanitary products & promoting support for mental health and well-being.

The role of AOC within the community includes -General charitable purposes - The prevention or relief of poverty - Overseas aid/famine relief - Religious activities - Economic/community development/employment - Children/young people - Elderly/old people - People with disabilities - The general public/mankind - Makes grants to individuals - Makes grants to organisations - Provides human resources - Provides services - Provides advocacy/advice/information At AOC The Ark Family Centre we offer a range of support services to the local community. Some of these are just starting out and are in development. We have a vision to touch the lives of the community to provide a safe place for children families and individuals to seek support and advice or be signposted to relevant local organisations. The vision is to improve quality of life, provide equal access to basic provision and enable individuals to grow. We have set up a food bank which operates on an open door policy so everyone is welcome and can choose what they need rather than being provided with a standard package. The aim is that people can feel valued and have equal access to basic food provision. The food supply from neighbourly will be used to meet the increasing demand and need for food. The food provided to the community is free of charge and goes to young children, teenagers and families as well as individuals who may be struggling. We have an open door policy so this is accessible to all members of the public including some families who we work with regularly. In addition to this AOC also offer a warm space called switch off and park at the ark on a weekly basis. This provides a safe space for the community to access a computer, work, talk and there are specific trained mental health practitioners available . General help and support is offered including signposting to other agencies. As part of this group we provide hot drinks and hot food to all that attend. There is no restriction and again this is an open door policy. The food from neighbourly would therefore be used for this also. Additionally we offer childrens groups and groups for parenting support and emotional wellbeing for children and parents. The aim in the near future is to expand our services to offer a group to enable families to ddvelop their skills in cooking on a budget. This will enable families to grow and share their skills through generations!

We are an Independent Food Club, serving the Community of Middleton Leeds LS10. We've been running a food club on a weekly basis now; for over a year. This has been a great success; but due to the cost of living crisis; our numbers attending have now more than quadrupled. We've been providing refreshments and interacting with members; making them feel welcomed and valued. By running this project; we have found that people are struggling financially on many fronts. We would also like to provide toiletry and cleaning products which are equally very expensive and necessary for health and hygiene; in addition to continuing with providing basic food items. Along with the Food Club; we've been offering a 'warm space'; socialisation and mindful activities to improve mental health which we are realising is becoming a bigger issue for many. The Food Club is advertised on social media; we've had articles in the local press promoting our projects; leaflets are available in the local schools; Age Concern; churches; local community centres and given to new members when registering. Members are made aware on our literature that funding has been provided by the National Lottery Fund. People who attend Food Club pay £3.50 which is used to purchase products we are short of for the Pantry. Each person chooses from the pantry a selections of items, usually around the value of about £30.00. We allow choice of products rather than just giving bags of selected items to prevent waste, The choice we usually have available is a selection of pantry food items, non alcoholic drinks such as cordials, tea and coffee, fridge and frozen products, toiletries, cleaning products, fresh fruit and vegetables, ladies sanitary products, baby products. the choice of all these depends on what we get donated or buy from the money collected. Our redistribution system seems to work well, though we often have to limit some products due to the amount of people who attend and fairness for sharing, when we are running low on items.