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Refrigerated Van for Northwich Produce published their Delivery Report!2 years ago
By Northwich Community Support
The number of visitors to our no food waste initiative has tripled since November. At times we have refused fresh produce because we lacked an appropriate van for transportation and refrigeration
If NCS had a refrigerated van we could dramatically increase our fresh and chilled produce collections to meet the growing need in Northwich. Currently we have a small army of 50 unpaid volunteers who will fold down their vehicle seats and operate like a little tardis and cram in as much produce as they can. This means it takes us a multiple trips and a very long time to get produce to our hubs. In some cases, for food safety and logistical reasons, we have to reject produce that is very much needed in Northwich. Sometimes our hubs run short of produce meaning some needy people leave empty handed. Produce we cannot collect is then often taken by other organisations who do have the logistics and moved out of the town or ends up in landfill. The ongoing running costs of a refrigerated van have been estimated and budgeted into the NCS finance plan for 3 years. We are seeking cover for two years of these estimated costs.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
In the current climate of rising inflation, poverty and COVID recovery there are some simple solutions to help the Northwich community stretch their budgets.The NCS army of unpaid volunteers, use local and national contacts, to locate, collect and process surplus food, which would otherwise go to landfill and distribute it to our community via a small network of hubs. Times are tough, but the people of Britain are proud. Foodbanks carry a stigma and are anecdotally 'for people on benefits' but we all know there are a people in the grey areas inbetween. We allow people to work with us as a no food waste initiative to reduce the towns carbon footprint and as a by product, make the weekly shop a bit easier to manage. Fruit and veg are often the first produce to be stock rotated and users of our hubs report a substantial increase in the consumption of fresh food items. Patrons are eating better, fresher food and stretching their food budget while reducing the towns carbon footprint.
Steps to get it done:
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Whoop, 20 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Whoop, 10 people have pledged since fundraising began!
How will the money be spent?Target (inc. fees) £34,246
Costs Breakdown
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Target (inc. fees) £34,246
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VolunteerNorthwich Community Support (NCS) is a registered charitable organisation aimed at preventing or relieving poverty through the distribution of donated surplus food and the provision of linked support, services and advice to individuals and families in financial need. We distribute food to 500 families in financial need each week. We also reduce Northwich's carbon footprint by reducing food waste whic would otherwise go to landefill.
We are staffed entirely by volunteers preventing good food going to landfill and helping people stretch their weekly budget. We are not a foodbank, no one is turned away or has too prove they are on benefits. You don't have have be on benefits to be finacially struggling. We aim to destigmatise poverty. We will never ship food out of Northwich when our community would benefit from it.
Our week of hubs starts with Winnington in the Scout hut on Winnington Ave, CW8 4EE, Sunday morning, Tuesday morning at Cuddington at St John’s Parish Centre on Norley Rd, CW8 2JU, Next up is Weaverham on Wednesday morning at the Lighthouse on Church Lane, CW8 3NJ.Then last but not least the Rudheath hub on Friday morning at the Rudheath social club on Middlewich Rd, CW9 7DN.
Additional flash hubs are organised on an ad-hoc basis to handle oversupply offers from local supermarkets, retailers and food distribution centres.
We actively promote our activities though social media to ensure people know where and when we are operating and to manage expectations of what we have available. This seems to self regulate the number of people attending so that we have satisfied patrons and minimal waste. Spoiled produce and the little left over goes to animal feed collected locally.
We are an organisation focussed on helping people while reducing food waste. We need a refrigerated van to increase the volume and variety of perishable food available, reduce our number of transport movements and the shelf life of the donated products.
A van will help us be consistent across our hubs and spread the food fairly across them. We are currently being lobbied to operate a fifth local hub.
Our model could be replicated across CWAC.
Project Owner: Northwich Community Support The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
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