Shrewsbury Food Hub's vision is a community where food is valued and not wasted. Our charity’s mission is to reduce food waste to protect the environment and support our community.
In April 2016, a local homeless charity contacted us as they had been offered surplus food by a supermarket, but they didn’t have volunteers to collect it. We spoke to other charities who were having problems too – some were overwhelmed by the amounts of food available, and others were given food that they could not use. We thought we could help and set up Shrewsbury Food Hub to collect the surplus food available locally and get it to people who could use it. We started small. In 2016, a group of six volunteers were collecting from M&S and delivering to five community groups. Today, 150+ amazing volunteers collect food daily from 40+ suppliers and share it with 65 community groups and 15 Foodshares.
“There is a huge need in our community. Long queues every Saturday, many regulars who rely on this food to survive. A hugely valuable resource appreciated by many.” - Foodshare facilitator.
We have established an amazing family of volunteers, suppliers, partner groups and beneficiaries. Our volunteers are the heart of the Hub and are our greatest ambassadors. Most of our small team of paid staff started as volunteers. We involve our volunteers in consultation and meetings for strategic development and have volunteer representative Trustees on our Board. We are proud to hold the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for the tireless work we do to stop food waste and support our community.
We are doing all we can to support our community by ensuring food is accessible and help the environment by preventing food waste. We are so proud of what we have achieved so far and we hope to continue this meaningful work for years to come, however, heightened operational costs threaten our future.
