Sainsbury's St Johns Road Local

We are Rusthall's Community Food Larder. Fighting food poverty and food waste by providing surplus food to the local community.

St Matt’s Community Larder started in November 2020 at the Bethel Hall in High Brooms, a spacious and accessible location in the heart of the community. There are areas of social deprivation within the community, reflected in high rates of pupil premium children in the local primary school . The larder is an opportunity to provide affordable good quality food to local families and individuals, especially in these difficult times of increasing job losses and financial pressure, whilst also reducing food wastage.

Nourish is a registered charity operating in Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding areas. We work with frontline agencies to determine the need and validity of each referral in order to supply short-term emergency food and supplies to those in crisis. People are referred to Nourish for a wide variety of reasons such as problems with benefits, domestic violence, low/delayed wages, debt and homelessness. In 2015-2016, 3,141 people in crisis in Tunbridge Wells and surrounding areas were provided with three days' emergency food, 43% of whom were under 18. This was an increase of 34% YoY from 2014-2015 and we have again seen increased demand in 2016-2017 We work from our base at Big Yellow Self Storage in Tunbridge Wells where we store our food in three large storage units. Our volunteers pick and pack food bags three days a week and we have a dedicated team of volunteer drivers that distribute our bags directly to the homes of our beneficiaries.