Dear friends and supporters of the West Somerset Food Cupboard
We started May with some celebrations at the Food Cupboard. On Monday 8th May we took part in the Coronation weekend ‘Big Help Out’, giving the whole food cupboard and pantry a thorough clean up and re-organisation. The Big Help Out campaign was designed to showcase how volunteering benefits the communities it serves – and the West Somerset Food Cupboard team pulled out all the stops!
Then the next day we celebrated the Pantry’s first birthday with cake and party balloons! For 12 months now we have been working in partnership with supermarket surplus charity Fareshare SouthWest, Somerset Council’s Local Pantries team, and generous local growers and suppliers, to rescue surplus food and share it amongst 40 local member households (each having up to 6 months membership). We continue to seek new sources of surplus food (fresh, frozen and non-perishable), so please get in touch if you have any suggestions
It hasn’t all been parties though. The work of providing free emergency food parcels to those in greatest need in our community continues as normal. In May 2023, we and our partner organisations distributed 99 food parcels of varying sizes depending on the household; a total of 669 so far this year as compared with 463 at this point last year. As always, we are very grateful to all who reliably donate food or funds to keep this work going, as well as the shops, churches and community venues and groups that arrange food collection points for us. Most recently we’d like to thank Dunster Castle for sharing surplus Easter Eggs with us!
Any non-perishable food items are gratefully received. This month we would really appreciate:
- Coffee or hot chocolate
- Small bottles of squash
- Individual cartons of juice
- Individual pots of custard or fruit
- Individual porridge pots
- Tinned vegetables
- Tinned cold meat
As June begins, we join with thousands of other community groups and charities to celebrate National Volunteers’ Week 2023. The Food Cupboard simply couldn’t operate without its fabulous team of reliable volunteers, both those who carry out the operational tasks week in week out, and the trustees who oversee everything that we do. A very big thank you to you all for all that you contribute to the smooth running of the charity.
With best wishes from the West Somerset Food Cupboard team
