The Feed Social Supermarket & Community Kitchen

Aim

To offer people security that if an unexpected crisis does happen, they will always be able to eat, no matter the financial situation.

The Feed is a social enterprise with a mission to prevent poverty, hunger and homelessness in Norwich. In 2020, just after the first lockdown, we launched the Community Fridge at The Feed. Its aim was to distribute waste food to people who had been impacted by Covid and were struggling to afford to buy food and feed their families. The fridge has stayed open since then, opening 5 days a week and distributing food that would have otherwise gone to waste. 

In 2021, we had 5200 visits to the fridge, and we gave away 26,500kg of food.  

On a mission to further develop the work we do to address food poverty in Norwich, we are launching a Social Supermarket in the spring, based on Hall Road in Norwich. 

We envisage that the Hall Road premises will become a real community hub, where people will feel welcome and a sense of community, belonging and ownership. It will be developed by co-producing with the community and the steering group. 

People become shoppers, rather than receivers which prevents social exclusion and prevents the need for crisis support further down the line. 

Helping people to cope with the rising costs of living

People can join for free and become 'members' They can shop in the supermarket to purchase food, hygiene and cleaning products at significantly reduced prices. It will offer people stability of budgeting and security in the knowledge that if an unexpected crisis does happen, they will be able to eat. It promotes dignity and gives people choice.  The supermarket is stocked with surplus food purchased via the food redistribution charity, Fareshare and other organisations. We aim to work with local farmers and local food manufacturers for food that is close to the expiration date and surplus or unwanted (wonky!) vegetables and products. We also aim to work with local allotment growers & organisations. Our aim is to provide access to a wide range of food. 

Helping people to move out of food poverty 

Members will be supported, where relevant, to access local services to help them to move forward out of food insecurity. This could be budgeting skills for example or employability support (including our own employability services) and information about accessing training or further education. We will also support people with workshops and courses run in the Community Kitchen, focusing on food education, & wellbeing support for example. We therefore expect to see a regular rotation of membership as people are supported and empowered to become more self-sustaining. 

Volunteer opportunities for the community

The social supermarket provides an excellent opportunity for people to volunteer but also for people to receive supported work experience and training in retail. We will run this in a similar manner to our existing work experience, with employability support running alongside. There may be an opportunity to offer an accredited training programme in retail and also potential for job creation as the project develops.  

How we will use the money

We will use the Aviva Community funding to purchase food and supplies so that the supermarket is fully stocked on opening, getting us off to a great start!

This project successfully funded on 12th April 2022