PGL Beyond

YMCA Dulverton Group offer a range of services and support to the communities we serve in Weston-super-Mare, Bridgwater and West Somerset. Young people are at our core. We believe in young people and we believe in creating transformational communities in which they can truly belong, contribute and thrive. YMCA Dulverton Group facilities in Weston are situated opposite Grove Park on Bristol Road Lower, less than a minutes’ walk from the Playhouse Theatre. Offering a hub for services and provision for the community these include temporary emergency accommodation for young people, a drop-in Youth Café 6 days a week, shared and studio flat accommodation for young people, community meeting place, a meeting and training room. This project aim is to provide meals for people in need when they experiencing crisis in their lives. Crisis such as being homeless, benefit cuts, living independently without family support and on a low income.

“We are fighting food waste and preventing residual food from going to landfill. The residual food is repurposed to ensure no one goes hungry”. We have a retail shop in the centre of High Wycombe. The shop is open 6 days a week. We have a warehouse on the first floor where we can sort and distribute food. This allows us to both run a shop feeding those in need and supply our partner organisations. We are collecting from leading major supermarkets within a 15-mile radius of High Wycombe. We also receive direct deliveries from manufacturers and warehouses. We are also a member of the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) which represents independent food banks and distributors across the UK. Our Food Hub model allows us to manage not only residual food but also ambient, chilled, and frozen food. The fact we have both a retail and wholesale distribution ability has been identified by Fare share as one of a few operations in SE England with this capability. Who do we supply? WFH supply products to people unable to access or buy food, those that cannot get Government aid or are unable to survive on the Government’s benefit payments, those who are now suffering from loss of jobs and the self-employed who cannot get benefits, those who cannot access the traditional referral foodbanks. The range of people coming to us for help is growing weekly. Considering what is happening nationally the need for our food and services will continue to grow. We have partnered with other charities and groups and we are supplying residual product to food distribution organisations across Bucks. We are also piloting supplying food to partner organisations who are using the ingredients in hot meals and school food packs. Current scale of operation We have volunteers out each day and evenings collecting residual food. We currently collect more than 250 crates a week from leading supermarkets, warehouses, and retail shops. Food that would otherwise go to landfill. We have a retail food hub open 6 days a week for 3 hours each day We are directly feeding Circa 500 people each week through our retail food hub and partners. In addition, we offer free food outside of the hub . Our wholesale operation is supplying both food parcels and crates of food to our partners. We are also now being asked to supply food to be used in the preparation of cooked meals. Our wholesale operation is growing each week as more organisations draw on our services Funding streams We receive no statutory finding from govt of Council. We rely on donations from public and by asking for a donation from users of our retail hub. We also supply food free to the charities and organisations who are taking food from us each week.

Bentswood Hub C.I.C. was set up to take on the responsibility of the community larder and some other activities in the Bentswood area when Sussex Clubs for Young People sadly went in to liquidation. Bentswood Hub C.I.C. offers a holistic approach to youth and community support, empowering the community to embrace it's youth and build better futures. Bentswood Hub C.I.C. delivers the following activities: Emotional support and sign-posting. A community larder offering fair access to food for all. Pop-Up events to support the community at key points in the year. A junior and a Senior youth group. A 'Just for Girls' weekly emotional wellbeing group. Training and work experience programmes for young people. A Man2Men weekly session. A knit and natter weekly session. A weekly silent book club. Volunteering opportunities.