B&Q Store Support Office

New Forest Aquaponics cic regenerative culture hub. We aim to help the understanding of connections with all parts of modern life, and our biosphere. At our core is Aquaponics - the farming of fish and edible plants, as well as growing all types of food. To grow food we need good soil, and good people working together. Good people need food, somewhere to meet and grow the food, and to feel valued. We aim to set up a community owned farm in the New Forest. . We are keen to hear from anyone who could help us provide this resource for the Waterside area of the New Forest. I Some of our active projects, please let us know if you would like to get involved - help is always appreciated The Waterside Food Project - Feed people, Feed animals, compost. We firmly believe that no one should ever go hungry, no food should ever be wasted, and no food should ever go to landfill or incineration. We work with smaller groups across the Waterside, providing resources to make sure they can get access to supermarket excess food, by collecting the food and recognising who can make best use of what's been collected. The groups we work with provide support for low income families and provide emergency food parcels, or cook for the homeless. Food that cannot be eaten, but can feed animals, goes to animal groups, and anything that is left after the people and animals are fed is composted, the compost will be used to help teach food growing. Ecobricks UK - Teaches communities all about plastic, how and why we are in such a mess with it, providing methods of tracking plastic transition and how we can measure our positive impacts on our biosphere. This is done via workshops, online and in person. Support is offered as to how the ecobricks can be used to bring benefit to the community whilst sequestering the plastic out of the biosphere. Waterside Clothes Swaps - We all need clothing, and with the cost of living increasing buying clothes, even from charity shops ,can be out of reach for some. Combine that with the damage the textile industry is doing to our world, helping with both issues is super important, we do this via waterside clothes swaps. We are in need of support - could you donate towards our hall hire costs, or donate clothes rails or even clothes? The Virtually Real Forest - our project to create deep connections between children and trees. Again working with Blackwell Bushcraft we run workshops on trees and their importance to our biosphere. Each child is able to take a tree home to grow in a pot becoming a guardian of that tree. The tree is registered with The Virtually Real Forest, its journey can be followed, and support in caring for the tree can be given to the guardian of the tree. The aim of the scheme is to create more understanding of trees, and how they grow. More details are on the blog section of our website. We are looking for funding to provide the workshops to community groups and schools.

Food redistribution charity in Southampton. Serving People, Saving Waste

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.