Fleet Street Quarter

Feeding Isle of Wight runs a surplus food distribution centre on the Isle of Wight. This was set up to prevent surplus food being returned to the mainland to go into landfill. The aim is to help prevent hunger in an area of high deprivation. We distribute to various food charities on the Island. We also run a food pantry in Cowes from the front of the distribution centre. We offer various wraparound care including a Digital Network Hub.

(the company’s objects are:- (a) to support positive change in people's lives; (b) to promote equality and diversity and racial harmony based on equal value of all persons; (c) to promote the intellectual, social and physical well-being of all people who are deemed to need our service; (d) to advance education to enable people to improve their understanding of the world, of themselves and of one another; (e) to advance citizenship and community development to encourage the involvement of people in the care and work for others; (f) to relieve those in need by reason of their age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage. We provide supported accommodation for 18 vulnerable adults and young people in our Crewe Road Gardens community.Food donations will be distributed to our service users free of charge.Service users are referred to us via Edinburgh City Council. We aim to use all the donated food from local supermarkets/shops to help combat food waste across the city and teach our residence an importance and value of food especially in current challenging economically times. We are very resourceful and can adjust our menu depending on current food donations. If there is surplus of veg/fruit we can make a cold pressed juice to last longer and can be kept in the fridge. Our young adults have an opportunity to take part in food preparation and improve their cooking skills which will be surely needed in their independent living as adults. Great popularity is our pizza nights which residents can you their imagination and creativity with this popular food which is great to minimize food waste. We believe that having a fully nutritious meals across day is essential to achieve their full potential and be at peak of energy:) We appreciate every donated food item or toys from local shops to cheer our residents up and express our gratitude to those who donate:) We are located in a disadvantage area of Pilton/Crewe with its own many problems and we aim to create a little oasis here for our residents to feel safe and valued. The donated food/items is essential to balance our limited budget too and allows us through money saved on shopping bill to focus on investing in them through expanding activities helping them to achieve their full potential:) To give an example: we have had a resident taken off street who was worried that coming to our premises would mean that he will eat 'junk' food:) He was surprised that he would have a regular access through food donation scheme to Pret a Manger avocado sandwiches and organic chicken from M&S!!:))) He was so happy that he will be able to eat healthy. Those little examples are inspiring our food collectors to keep going and they will gladly do this free of charge as you cannot put a price on disadvantaged residents smile while they receive lovely good donations:)

Merstham Community Facility Trust (MCFT) was created to meet the needs of the people in Merstham. We aim to SUPPORT, CONNECT, and EMPOWER our community. We aim to achieve this through working with an amazing team of staff and volunteers to run multiple projects, to bring people together and provide a shared, safe space for the community. The activities, events and projects undertaken by MCFT help to create opportunities, access, provision and shared understanding. We ensure we remain inclusive and authentic by consulting with our community to identify what the community would truly like to see available at the Merstham Hub and in the local area. Learn more about one of our project: MCFT set up a Community Fridge in April 2019 with the aim to reduce the large amount of food waste through the sharing of good quality food. It is a place where local people can share food including surplus from food businesses, producers, gardens… With a fridge, a freezer and a unit display at the Merstham Hub, we can store all kind of food safely. Through Neighbourly, our amazing team of volunteers will be able to collect food from local supermarkets that would have otherwise been wasted and allows it to be distributed, for free, amongst members of the community, in particular to those in need. This project is community led and runs on donations only. Anyone can visit and help themselves. Our Community Fridge brings people together, addresses social isolation and provides people with the opportunity to access healthy food, try something new and save money. In 2022, 2.5tons of food was saved from landfill and re-distributed to Merstham community.