Background

Although there is currently a local foodbank (which we already support) and a well-established ‘People’s Kitchen’ (providing hot meals and shower facilities) in the city centre for a specific need, this project is a response to the considerable food poverty which has sadly been augmented post-pandemic - a more subtle development being the ‘working poor’, and the recent government decision to end Universal Credit payments after October 2021.

The project

After scoping local stakeholders and achieving retail support from 'neighbourly' group, the NCCC team have:

  1. Installed and blessed a refrigerator in the porch of the church
  2. Collect appropriate donations and surplus foodstuffs in the form of sandwiches and selected perishables from local retailers/supermarkets, who have signd up to 'neighbourly'.
  3. Advertise (by professional signposting) and offer this facility to the city centre community.
  4. Monitor and sustain the project thereafter.

The desired outcome(s)

  1. People who cannot afford to buy food can safely take what they need, without fear of prosecution, anxiety about being judged or risk to their health.
  2. Local traders will use their surplus stock productively rather than simply discarding.
  3. Local people of all faiths and none who are desperate will not need to suffer the further indignity of foraging through waste bins to find food.
  4. Those who use the facility will be anonymous and can ‘hide in plain site’ within the footfall traffic that naturally passes our central venue.
  5. Raises awareness of the problem of food surplus and prevents edible food being wasted.
  6. Food taken by a range of people, from a student who fancies a pasty to homeless people and those on low incomes, or those recently affected by the withdrawl of their Universal Credit.

N.B. We are aware of the H&S aspects which have been professionally researched and will of course be applied and monitored at all times by the chaplaincy team.

We have CCTV facility in the intended location