ALDI HEDGE END

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.

The Food Centre is a church led, community focused project that enables individuals and families to be supported during financial crisis. We provide dried, tinned and, when available, fresh food which is donated by individuals, schools, churches and local businesses. Our passion is to provide food with love and encouragement to those struggling within our communities. OPENING HOURS It is open every Monday (except Bank Holidays) at King’s Community Church (KCC) from 10am to 1pm. It also opens a Food Pantry every Thursday at KCC from 10am to 12.30pm. The Food Centre is supported by “Churches Together ” in the Southern Parishes area and has various food collection points which are based at KCC, Aldi, Lidl, M &S and the Co Op in Hedge End and has collection points in a number of different churches. REFERRAL We have about 60 different referral agencies that include local church leaders, Doctors/GPs, children services, vulnerable adult services, CAB at Hedge End or Eastleigh offices and primarily Eastleigh B/C who are in contact with the local community. Their role is to contact the food centre to inform us of personal details and needs. This is done by electronic referrals or by phone to the designated mobile number. FOOD DONATIONS The food centre requires regular food donations and these can be brought to KCC from Monday to Friday 09.00-16.30 or on a Sunday morning from 09.30-12.00. Please put the food on the shelving at our donation point near the main entrance. For a list of all food types required, please click here but please remember that it must be non-perishables and in date.

Our message is ‘no space for waste’. Our mission is to reduce great food ending up in landfill. we run three days a week from a community centre where people can access the food and also stay for tea, coffee and company.