VIVID Plus Investment Vault has provided £1,000 of match funding
The Food Centre Marketplace
Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Aim
We have been running a Food Centre for a number of years but wish to create a Community Marketplace Cafe to provide food but also signpost.
I am the Manager of The Food Centre at Kings Community Church and we provide food to our customers at two sessions per week.
At present we supply all food free of charge however none of this is picked by the client/customer but purely packed by our volunteers. This supply is an emergency based response and in theory should only be supplied over a period of 6-8 weeks
To offer an alternative arrangement we wish to create a marketplace or if you like a pantry. The pantry would be a membership food bank wherein customers would pay a nominal fee per week (£4) to be supplied with 20 items of food as chosen by themselves. Joining the pantry would enable us to build a community with our customers and provide dignity for the customers.
It would also allow a Parish nursing team and Social Prescribers to interact with the customers over a long term period. The aim of this holistic approach to food provision is to -
- Improve the customers health and wellbeing
- Improve household finances.
- Continue to prevent waste
- Prevent hunger
- Build dignity and agency
The Food Centre Pantry would hopefully build into a cherished role as a neighbourhood hub, and act as a springboard to other initiatives and ideas, such as cookery classes, volunteering opportunities, and training. The idea is to build the pantry within a room identified within the Church. This would mean we would initially need finance to stud wall the room and purchase a till of some sort.
The cost of this in terms of a studwall/ shelving and a new freezer/fridge would be in the region of £5000
This project successfully funded on 9th April 2024