Canada Life UK

We are a community fridge that takes surplus food from local businesses and suppliers, using trained volunteers, and make it available in a public place to anyone who wants it. Our current home is in the library in the Keynsham Civic Centre on Market Walk. The main purpose of the community fridge is to reduce food waste. Food waste is a big issue in the UK. Around 10 million tonnes of food waste is produced in the UK every year, of this an estimated 60% could be avoided. Food waste also produces greenhouse gases when it decomposes  and is a net contributor to global warming.  On average, over the last 4 years, we have kept 1.5 tonnes of food waste per month out of landfill. The food, mostly fresh food, although we do also receive some ambient food, is available for free to anyone who wants it, with no eligibility requirements. In taking food people are asked to consider others, we get approximately 50 people per day using our service, and take only one small bag of food per person, per day. Our service helps to address food poverty as well as raise awareness about waste, food security and living in a sustainable manner. We are a not for profit company limited by guarantee. We are registered as a Food Company by B&NES and have completed all the HACCP protocols, risk assessments and health & safety protocols. Our policies can be seen in the documents of this page.

We run a surplus foodbank in Somers Town in the borough of Camden in London. All thanks to 50 local volunteers who help us to support 80 local households, 11 hostels, 1 after-school club and 1 church group. We are supporting just over 125 children now living in poverty. We do this by collecting surplus from 45 local stores every week and redistributing them in a timely manner all thanks to each volunteer commiting to a regular shift weekly/ alternate weeks. Collections are made by bicycle using hitch on/off trailers, by foot using hand carts and some volunteers use their cars for those big collections and drop-offs to big hostels. We also operate a 'Room of thing's where local households that we support can take anything they need from. Items are donated by local businesses and people. There isn't much we can't find a home for. In our small courtyard we also have a surplus cart where people passing by can take what they need. This is about supporting local people whilst also being a part of a circular reuse mode. Our volunteers support us with so much more, from helping local residents with their CVs, mentoring, sewing surplus food bags from textile waste, running a monthly free clothing swap and more. Our project is person centred, each volunteer has something meaningful to offer a local person; this is where community happens. We are just a team of 2 and are BAME-Led. Our work with Neighbourly is a key part to be able to support local people. You can find out more about the impact your support has on our beneficiaries on our website and you can visually see what our operation looks like on our instagram. We always need volunteers.

Over the past eight years, Community Needs Foundation (CNF) has worked very hard to build relationships with some of the most deprived and underprivileged individuals in Royal Borough of Greenwich. We operate our foodbank from a community venue in Abbey Wood, South East London, where we sort, and distribute food donations and essential household items to individuals and families in need which includes; family with children, older adults, unemployment/low income, No Recourse to Public Funds. Our service provides a safe and welcoming environment for service users to access support and advice. As a community foodbank, our greatest need is sustainable funding to enable us to continue serving our growing community effectively. We are seeking support to help cover: Core organisational running costs, including rent, utilities, insurance, equipment, and essential operational expenses. Staff salaries, ensuring we can retain experienced staff to coordinate our services, support volunteers, manage referrals, and provide consistent assistance to those in need. Programme funding to expand and sustain our community initiatives, including emergency food provision, culturally appropriate food packages, our Coffee Chat for Over 60s, cookery and healthy eating sessions, and other health and wellbeing activities. Continued food donations, including fresh, frozen, ambient, and culturally appropriate food, to ensure we can provide nutritious food parcels and respond to increasing demand throughout the year. Food and essential supplies, to meet increasing demand from individuals and families experiencing food insecurity. Volunteer recruitment and training, helping us maintain a strong volunteer workforce to deliver our services safely and effectively. With increasing demand for our services and rising operating costs, long-term funding is essential to ensure we can continue supporting vulnerable individuals and families while responding to the changing needs of our local community.