Why we set up a food club
 

Devonport Food Club opened earlier this year, an initiative of several churches, and is helping dozens of people access healthy, affordable food, writes Michael Shaw   
 

A few years ago we identified that many parents in the area we lived in struggled to provide meals for their children over school holidays. This was the summer of 2019, and so we started a partnership with the other local churches and Transforming Plymouth Together (TPT),  supported by the Church Urban Fund to run a small holiday club which ended with all the children going away with a meal. The trial worked but we probably got the location wrong. However, we knew the need was there.
 
During the lockdowns, this need intensified and the awareness was raised (mainly thanks to Marcus Rashford). Because we couldn’t run an event, we offered emergency holiday food parcels to 40 local families during the school holidays and half-terms. All the families were recommend by local school families workers. 
 
It became apparent that we needed to do something more strategic and long term. I had heard of community fridge projects, community pantries and also social supermarkets (the most well known is the Message Trust's community grocery.) These sit between supermarkets and foodbanks, offering longer term, affordable food that provide dignity and a sense of contribution.

As a group of small churches we couldn’t afford (and didn’t have any community buildings to create a full on shop). Nevertheless, we felt we could do something, at this stage, for one morning a week.
 
We had some money left over from a previous youth project (we confirmed with the original funder of course) and used the money to buy a fridge. We had a location in a shared building, where there is a church (local Anglican) and a library. It had been a café, but had shut a few years before. 

We just needed some food! Luckily about this time Fareshare had just opened a Devon branch in Plymouth, and so in partnership with TPT and Fareshare we opened our doors in March this year. 
 
We decided on the name “Devonport Food Club”, a partnership between all the local churches. The model is simple: we are not a foodbank, we are a club. We run one morning a week; it costs £1 to join the club, with £2 charged per bag.  
 
We have been running just a few months now:

• Have 74 members
• Have had to up our allocation from 50kgs to 150kgs each week
• Have sourced 10 slow cookers to give away
• Have people from Plymouth Energy Company coming each week to advise people on their energy bills
• Have been on local and national news, with more enquiries coming
• Are getting requests from other local churches and charities on the model we are using
• Have built a team of volunteers, but may need to take on paid staff 
• Are looking at becoming a CIC 

Each session is laid out to look like a shop, with an open glass fridge, and crates for vegetables. We have bread, hygiene products, dried food and fridge stuff. Each session is very busy and we also have people on hand just to talk with people, as well as the energy people to help people with the longer term issues they are facing.
 
None of our churches are big (indeed, we are all small churches), but the club pays for itself, so we have not needed to look for external income (grants). The club provides dignity to people who may not qualify for a foodbank voucher, and in the process we are helping ensure food doesn’t end up in landfill! All the team are Christian and we are doing it in response to feeding the poor in Matthew 25.
 

Michael Shaw is the minister of Devonport Community Baptist Church, Plymouth