BODMIN COMMUNITY LARDER

BODMIN COMMUNITY LARDER....

In collaboration with the UK's largest food charity, FareShare, the Bodmin Way provides a community larder in the Bodmin Parish Centre. This initiative fights food poverty, hunger and food waste.

10th Nov. 2022  -  The Bodmin Larder now has in excess of 300 regular customers and are seeking more help for food and storage.  At present looking for donations to help buy refridgeration units.  Please use contact below if you wish to help in any way.

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13/7/22 Latest : Bodmin Rotary agreed to donate £500.00 funds to the Community Larder Group for the purchase of a DeepFreeze and Shelving.  Part of this money was raised by providing a Refreshment tent on Priory Lawn on June 4th 2022 (Jubilee weekend)  Thanks must go to everyone who supported us.

Presentation of Cheque:   Rotary President Su Tune and Abbie Cavalera

14/7/22 Latest News:  IMPORTANT

Larder opening days and times are changing:
Starting on Thursday 14th July:
5.30pm - 6.30pm this will be our new evening time slot.
Friday 15th July open as usual at 9am - 11am this will not be changing.
We will NOT be open on Friday evenings

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There’s something for everyone, all are welcome

• The larder in the Parish Centre, opposite St. Petroc's Church, is open Friday 9am to 11am and 5.30pm to 6.30pm.

• Fruit, veg and store cupboard essentials are available, all purchased by the Bodmin Way team

• The food on offer will vary from week to week

• A one-off membership fee of £4 enables you to buy larder products on your first and subsequent visits

• Bring your own bags, fill a bag and donate what you can - A £1 donation for each bag of fruit and veg

• For a bag of 10 items of larder products (dried / packet / tinned) - A £3 donation helps us restock the larder

• Food safety, safeguarding and your privacy are essential aspects of our larder service
  

Within The Bodmin Way we have recognised that there is a greater need to support people and provide food for their families. The FareShare charity, grant funding, volunteers and small fees enable this service to the community

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Press release: Bodmin Rotary helping the Bodmin Community Larder to provide affordable food   in cost-of-living squeeze  

 Bodmin Rotary has donated £500 to help the Bodmin Community Larder buy a freezer and some more shelving racks.

 The Bodmin Community Larder was started in March 2022 by Bodmin Way, the CIC attached to the St Petrocs Church Group that runs many projects to help and support people in the Bodmin community.  

 Abbie Cavalera, who runs the Community Larder explained why Bodmin Way set up the Community Larder “The main aim of the Community Larder is to create a self-sufficient community larder that is sustainable in the long term, but it also helps to tackle the issue of food waste by providing affordable food to the community that is inclusive of everyone”   

 The Bodmin Community Larder now has more than 250 members. The food for the larder is currently bought from Fareshare South West, the region’s largest food redistribution charity.  Fareshare takes surplus food from the food industry and sells it to around 400 organisations in the South West. The Bodmin Community Larder is already Fareshare’s biggest customer in Devon and Cornwall, buying and redistributing around 750 kgs of food every week. Members pay a £4 joining fee and then pay £3 for 10 cupboard items and £1 for fruit and vegetables which makes the scheme self-financing as far as the food is concerned.  

 The Bodmin Community Larder is based in the Parish Centre, opposite St Petrocs Church, and the Bodmin Way team have had to make modifications and sacrifice some of their office space to accommodate the many shelves. They needed a chest freezer so that they could take frozen foods, baked goods, and other foods with a short shelf life. Su Tune, Bodmin Rotary’s President, pictured here with Abbie Cavalera at the Community Larder, said “Bodmin Rotary is always keen to provide support to and collaborate with, other organisations helping people in our local community. When we heard about what the Community Larder was doing, we wanted to help them, especially at this time when many people are feeling the squeeze on their budgets”  

Carol Randall July 2022

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To all members,

I have been corresponding with Paul Holley and I wanted to raise whether we can help with the Community Larder at St Petrocs. In just a month they have more than 130 members and it is growing fast. The people going to this are those struggling to cope with the cost of living crisis and Paul expects this to grow a lot and quicker than they thought too. In fact they have been amazed at how fast it is growing , they had 40 new people join last week. People join for £4 and then pay just £3 for 12 cupboard staples like pasta and £1 for veg. So it is help with dignity. 

Not like a charity handout. Last week they received over a ton of food (50% of which is veg and would have gone to landfill if they did not distribute it) They get delivery one day from Fareshare and distribute to members on the next.day. Paul Holley said it is a finely balanced scheme, but really valuable and every reason to invite all-comers to join. . Paul believes that the parish centre, where they currently have the Larder, to be in a good location for it - near to parking, no hills to climb, easy delivery, ground floor access etc. So, they are unlikely to seek alternative premises. He added that perhaps the main priority should be to adapt the centre to allow the larder to grow but that will take some investment. Paul is putting together a plan for development and is thinking they may need fridges and freezers , shelving plus some renovations . I was thinking that maybe we could help with this. I will update you when I get more info from Paul. . 

Recent Stats from the Trussell Trust say that need for food bank help has increased by 81% from the same time 5 years ago. We know that we have neighbourhoods with high levels of deprivation. The Trust says that hunger in the UK isnt about food, it's about a lack of income. They state that the main drivers of food bank use are 

• problems with the benefit systems (delays, inadequacy and reductions), 

• challenging life experiences or ill-health and 

• a lack of informal or formal support.. 

Paul's team is trying to help with the last one of these and I thought it is just the kind of thing we should be doing.

Carol  -  29/06/22

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