ALDI CENTRAL SIX RETAIL PARK

Last year, Coventry Foodbank collected over 170 tons of food, most of this generously donated by the general public. We gave out over 140 tons of food to those in an emergency. Most of this food is in the form of dried, packet and tinned goods. This type of food is great for clients who have their own cooking and storage facilities. As some of our clients do not have these facilities, we feel it's important to be able to offer foods that don't need preparation or storage. As a foodbank, we are conscious of the fresh food that is going to waste in our city. We would love to access fresh food so that we can supplement the food given out at the foodbank. Coventry Foodbank is a "more than food" foodbank. We currently run advice services at foodbank where clients can access trained advisers from Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). We have a clothes bank where clients can get pre-loved clothes. We have seventeen centres in the city and are feeding people at the rate of 1300 people each month - 40% of these are children under the age of 16.

We are a small charity born out of a real need during the pandemic to provide people with food support in Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, Whitley & Stonehouse Estate in Coventry. It's been nearly two and a half years since we started up Cheylesmore food hub to provide a helping hand with food & household items to those who need it. During that time, we've supported over 170 families (400+ people) some as one off and some for weeks or months. We've also worked in partnership with Coventry City Council to help them distribute many emergency food parcels as part of a household support fund and activity packs during the school holidays. We are proud that through our partnership with Fareshare, Aubrey Allen and a couple of Asda Stores we've saved tonnes of food from going to waste which is also helping the planet! We support a wide range of people including single people, large families with children, people with disabilities, lone parents, elderly couples, young adults with all differing circumstances, either on benefits or working part time/full time. If people are struggling and need food support we are here to help. We work out of a little storage cupboard in our local community to provide food bags worth £20 at a cost of £5 for our members. They include a mix of tinned and packet goods, cereal, milk, bread, fridge produce and sometimes frozen meat and any household supplies they may need. We have wonderful volunteers who give their time to help pack up 70-80 food bags each week and deliver them out to the people who need them. Of course it takes a lot of donations to make this work and without the generosity of individuals, church collections, schools and community groups we simply couldn't support all the families who need that helping hand. As we're all too aware with the cost of living crisis and food and energy prices soaring there is a greater need to support one another. We anticipate a huge increase in our membership and emergency parcels through the council, so we need your help more than ever... We would be so grateful to be able to access surplus food donations from Neighbourly to give our families a more diverse variety of nutritious food and supplies. And obviously we would rather not need to exist, but hope to be around for as long as our community in Coventry need us. So any financially support to help ensure our sustainability would also be amazing!

Carriers of Hope have teamed up with St. Marks Church and Youth With A Mission (YWAM) to establish a WorldFoods Food Hub. Operating weekly, our aim is to provide culturally relevant food to members and their families. For just £5, individuals who meet the criteria for membership (Refugee, Migrant or Asylum Seeker resident in the CV1 area requiring help towards food costs) can choose a basket of groceries with a retail value of approximately £30. The groceries include Halal meat, fresh bread and a selection of fruit and vegetables – the selection changes weekly and is dependent upon availability.