Shrewsbury Food Hub

In April 2016 our local homeless charity contacted us They had been offered surplus food by a local supermarket, but they didn’t have volunteers to collect the food. We made some calls Other charities were having the same problems. Some had tried, but were overwhelmed by the amounts of food available. Others had been given food that they could not use. We thought we could help We set up Shrewsbury Food Hub to collect the surplus food available locally and get it to people who could use it. We started small In April 2016 we started collecting from M & S and delivering to 5 community groups. Now we collect food from 17 supermarkets daily and share it with 56 community groups thanks to our amazing volunteers. We prevent good food going to waste Last year we prevented 64 tonnes of good food from going to waste - enough for 153,000 meals. 45% of the food we deliver is fresh produce Groups like the Crossbar Foundation have been able to run healthy eating courses with 500 children attending their holiday clubs. We provide food to 56 groups including Barnabas Community Projects, The Ark, Severn Hospice and organisations providing mental health support, 11 schools, 11 youth clubs, 4 Age UK day centres, playgroups and children’s sports clubs. We save community groups money The Severn Hospice report that we save them 30% of their food budget. Groups are also feeding more people, with better nutrition. Freeing up budget means groups have more to spend on their core services. We strengthen our community By linking organisations so that they can share know-how on how to engage people in healthy eating, tackling food poverty and holiday hunger.