25/09/2022
If you’re new to Community Groceries or want to know why we do what we do, here’s a quick run down:
Millions of families are facing not knowing where the next meal is coming from, so the Community Grocery is here to help.
The Community Grocery is a registered food charity that works as a bridge between food banks and supermarkets to support local residents with the choice of healthy, branded and fresh weekly food shops at a fraction of the cost. But it’s not just about the food. In each store you’ll also find a range of free support on offer to members which can include life skills, money management, mental well-being and many more. Since opening our first grocery on the back of the first Covid-19 lockdown, we now have 18 sites across the UK and have welcomed over 30,000 member families.
Memberships are open at all our locations and are available to anyone that needs the extra support and can access their nearest grocery. All sign ups are done in person with a £5 annual membership and then £4 for each shop after that where members can choose from a range of fruit & veg, bakery items, toiletries, chilled, frozen and cupboard goods, saving around £25 on each visit. For anyone who is in immediate crisis, we have a limited number of ‘pay-it forward’ gifted shops and memberships available at each store.
Lots of the items we receive are classed as ‘surplus’ by the food industry, meaning there may be packaging mistakes, errors with over-ordering, or that the food ends up too close to or just past its ‘best before’ date for them to sell. If they’d not done this the food would have normally ended up going into landfill, even though it’s perfectly safe and fine to eat!
