We have been busy collecting breakfast bars and drinks for the schools and have receive good support for that and packs will be going out this week in readiness of the new academic year.

If we could request the following items that are most needed, we would be very grateful.

• Instant Coffee
• Jam and Marmalade
• Tinned Potatoes/Packets of Mash
• UHT Milk
• Sugar
• Crackers/Savoury Snacks/Crisps
• Individual juices or squash drinks
• Individual puddings, rice pudding/custard
• Jars of fish or meat paste
• Breakfast bars/porridge pots
• Cuppa soups
• Tins of Ravioli/Macaroni Cheese

No fresh, chilled, frozen, damaged, out-of-date or home-made items please!
Please do not leave open or out of date items in our collection boxes.

We try and include items in our packs that will allow people that may find themselves homeless or in temporary accommodation the opportunity to have as varied a diet as possible.

Thank you as always, nothing ever gets wasted. If you can offer some alternative diet items that would also be great. We have suddenly had a demand for gluten free and dairy free produce, and we are currently supporting a number of families with these requirements.

Items can be dropped on at one of numerous drop off locations…

If you ever are unsure what you would like to donate or feel unsure that what you are donating is useful, we are always grateful for monetary donations too which is another way that you could help. You can be sure that the money will go towards projects that will offer further food support to the community.

Join Us on a Sponsored Walk

Robson’s Funeral Services are running a charity event for us on Saturday, 10th October. We are extremely grateful for their support and want to try and ensure this proves to be a success. I have attached a poster with all the details and if anyone fancies getting involved, please put the date in your diary. It should be full for everyone.

Find out more about the Sponsored Walk…

Quiz Night

Also don’t forget our Quiz Night on Friday 25th of September, we still have capacity for a few more teams so can you get your friends and family together to join us for a good night out.

Find out more about the Quiz Night…

Wishing you all the best from the team at WSFC

The walk is being organised by Robson’s Funeral Services. Join us for a sponsored walk along the beautiful Somerset coast and help support people in our local community.

• We’ll walk together from Minehead to Watchet (approx. 8.5 miles).
• We’ll stop in Watchet for refreshments/lunch and a well-earned break.
• Those who wish to take on the full challenge will then walk back to Minehead, making it approx. 17 miles.

PLEASE GET SPONSORED and help us raise as much money as possible for West Somerset Food Cupboard!

DISCLAIMER: Participants take part in the walk at their own risk and are responsible for ensuring they are fit and suitably prepared for the distance and conditions. Appropriate clothing and footwear are recommended. Robson’s Funeral Services accepts no responsibility for injury, loss or damage incurred during the event.

Sun-dried tomatoes, a tin of chopped tomatoes and a pack of gnocchi come together into a warming, bubbling bake topped with melted mozzarella, comforting, filling, and simple enough for a weeknight.

Ingredients

• 50g sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped, plus 1 tbsp oil from the jar
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• Small bunch fresh basil
• 200g cherry tomatoes
• 1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
• 500g fresh gnocchi
• 150g mozzarella ball
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan / Gas 6. Heat the tablespoon of oil from the sun-dried tomato jar in a large, ovenproof frying pan over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and fry for 3–4 minutes until it starts to soften. Stir in the garlic with a pinch of salt and cook for another minute.
3. Strip the basil leaves from the stalks and set the leaves aside. Finely chop the stalks and add to the pan along with the sun-dried tomatoes. Fry for a further minute.
4. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes, then pour in the tinned tomatoes. Half-fill the empty tin with water, add to the pan, stir, and let everything simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Roughly chop half the basil leaves and stir them through the sauce along with the gnocchi. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Tear the mozzarella into large chunks and scatter over the top. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the mozzarella is melted and golden and the gnocchi is tender.
7. Bring straight to the table and scatter over the remaining whole basil leaves. Great served with focaccia or garlic bread for dipping.

Tips

• If the tomatoes taste a little sharp, stir in a teaspoon of honey or a pinch of sugar before adding the gnocchi.
• No fresh basil? Dried herbs work just as well.
• Cooked sausages are a tasty addition, stirred through or served alongside.

Made with ingredients from this week’s Pantry at West Somerset Food Cupboard. Follow us on Facebook for more Cupboard to Kitchen recipes.

This week’s tart uses courgette, red pepper and tomatoes, all wrapped up in golden puff pastry with a creamy ricotta filling.

It’s easy to make, looks impressive, and works just as well warm from the oven as it does cold the next day.

Ingredients

• 375g ready-rolled puff pastry
• 250g ricotta
• 2 eggs
• Herbs of your choice (fresh or dried)
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 courgette, cubed
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
• 12 small tomatoes, sliced
• 50g grated Cheddar cheese
• Oil for frying
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Remove the puff pastry from the fridge 30 minutes before you need it, to let it come up to room temperature.
2. Fry the courgette, garlic and red pepper in a frying pan (or air fryer) until softened.
3. In a bowl, beat the ricotta with a little salt and pepper. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the grated Cheddar.
4. Preheat the oven to 200°C / Gas 6 and line a baking tray with baking paper.
5. Unroll the pastry onto the lined tray. Using a sharp knife, score a 2cm border around the edge — don’t cut all the way through. Prick the middle several times with a fork.
6. Spread the ricotta mixture over the base, staying within the scored border. Arrange the courgette and pepper mix on top, scatter over your herbs, and finish with the sliced tomatoes.
7. Brush the pastry edges with oil. Bake for 25 minutes, until the pastry is risen and golden and the filling has set.
8. Serve with a salad.

Variations

The base of this tart is really just the pastry, eggs and ricotta — everything else can flex depending on what you’ve got:

• Cheese: swap the ricotta or Cheddar for feta, Parmesan or Boursin.
• Meat: add sliced cooked ham or sliced cooked sausages.
• Fish: smoked salmon works really well.
• Veg: try asparagus, defrosted peas, or sliced fried leek or red onion instead of (or alongside) the courgette and pepper.
• Herbs: fresh or dried both work — thyme, basil and Italian seasoning are all good choices. A few small dollops of pesto on top before baking is a lovely addition too.

Made with ingredients from this week’s Pantry at West Somerset Food Cupboard. Follow us on Facebook for more Cupboard to Kitchen recipes.

Teams of up to six players. Tickets £4 per person. Great Prizes to be won!

To book a place, please email info@wsfoodcupboard.org.uk

As the summer holidays roll on, we wanted to share some of the wonderful things that have been happening at WSFC over the past few weeks. From new partnerships and community events to a few well-deserved thank-yous, it’s been a busy season. And as ever, we’re so grateful for the support of our local community.

Porlock Country Fair – Sunday 2nd August

A big thank you to everyone who donated prizes for the fair, including Butlins, Shearwell Data, Snazaroo, Amicus Law Networking Group, Miles Tea, Morrisons, Tesco’s and everyone in the community who dropped a prize in. Your generosity enabled us to offer lots of interaction with the community with “guess the number of beans in the wheel barrow” and our tombola. An amazing total of over £370 was raised thanks. For those that wanted to know the wheelbarrow contained 118 tins of beans and the prize of a family pass was won by a lovely family that supported us throughout the day with many attempts to win prizes. Thank you to everyone that made this event such a success for us.

Healthy breakfast packs for local schools

As we look ahead to the new school term, we’re hoping to put together healthy breakfast packs for local schools, to support children who arrive with hungry tummies. We’re collecting items such as:

• Breakfast bars
• Porridge pots
• Individual cartons of juice
• Other healthy, easy-to-eat snacks that need little or no preparation

These simple items can make a real difference – helping children settle into their school day with the energy and focus they need until lunchtime. If you feel able to contribute to this initiative, we would be incredibly grateful for your support.

This Month’s Shortages

Any non-perishable food items are always gratefully received:

• Instant Coffee or Hot Chocolate
• Jam and Marmalade
• Tinned Potatoes or Packets of Mash
• Tinned fish- tuna, sardines, mackerel
• Crackers/Savoury Snacks/Crisps
• Small jars of Fish Paste & Meat Spread
• Individual puddings- custard, rice pudding, jelly
• Sugar
• Tinned Fruit

We cannot accept open or out of date items. Please do not leave these items in our collection boxes. We welcome back any of our bags, please leave in the donation bin.

Save the Date: Quiz Night – 25th September

Get your thinking caps ready! We’re hosting a Charity Quiz Night on Thursday 25th September at Minehead Social Club. Full details will be announced soon but grab your friends and start forming your teams now. We’d also love your help with raffle prizes for the night, if you or your business can donate something for the raffle, however big or small, please get in touch. Every prize helps us raise a bit more for local families who need our support. If you would like tickets please email on info@wsfoodcupboard.org.uk or call on 07398613720

Some donations keep on giving

Computers4Good kindly gifted us a laptop as part of their mission to get technology into the hands of people who need it most. We recently asked if we could re-donate it to our local YMCA and they said yes without a moment’s hesitation.

Residents at the YMCA had been relying on staff laptops to complete online benefit applications. Now, thanks to Computers4Good, there’s a dedicated device on-site, used solely for that purpose and fully looked after by the YMCA team.For residents like Chris and Glen, it means one less obstacle at a time when every bit of support counts. A huge thank you to Computers 4 Good for their generosity, and for trusting us to pass the impact on.

Read more about this…

Building good connections with Citizens Advice Somerset

Over the years, West Somerset Advice Bureau played an important role in helping local residents access essential support. We recently met with Citizens Advice Bureau Somerset; it was a really positive conversation and they have really stepped up to fill the void. We now have good lines of communication in place, and they’re able to refer people on to us if they feel they need food support. Citizens Advice Somerset run a drop-in session every Monday, 10am–2pm, at the Minehead Eye. It’s a short introductory session where people can then book in for a more detailed appointment another time. If you need support, call in to the Minehead Eye on a Monday or contact them on 0808 278 7842 or via www.citizensadvicesomerset.org.uk. They are there to help.

If you know of any one that needs support with food please contact us or call 07795 080637.

Thank you, James!

A huge thank you to our brilliant website guru, James of JPC Design at https://jpc-design.com who so generously designs and maintains our website for us. It’s thanks to his hard work behind the scenes that we’re able to keep our community updated and connect people with the support they need. We really couldn’t do it without you, James!

Ways you can support us

Food donations make a huge difference, but financial donations help us too. Monetary gifts allow us to react to our demand, purchase essential items or special dietary requirements – helping us provide balanced meals to more families in our community. Whether you donate food, funds, or both, your support helps ensure no one goes hungry.

Sign up to EasyFundraising: We already have 35 amazing supporters and have raised over £618 this way– every penny helps so please sign up. Over 4,000 retailers will make a donation when you shop through @easyfundraising, at no extra cost to you. https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/west-somerset-food-cupboard/

We’re proud to be part of the @coopuk Local Community Fund. To support us please go to: membership.coop.co.uk/causes/97711 We will receive a percentage of their profits one of their chosen charities.

Thank you so much

As we look ahead to the new school term, we are hoping to put together 30 healthy breakfast packs for local schools to support children who arrive with hungry tummies. We are collecting items such as breakfast bars, porridge pots, individual cartons of juice and other healthy, easy-to-eat snacks that require little or no preparation. These simple items can make a real difference, helping children settle into their school day with the energy and focus they need until lunchtime. If you feel able to contribute to this initiative, we would be incredibly grateful for your support.

Meanwhile, our wonderful team of volunteers has been busy preparing for Porlock Fair this Sunday. We’ll be there with a fun stall to raise awareness of the work of the West Somerset Food Cupboard, so if you’re visiting the fair, please do come along and say hello!

You can also have a go at Guess the Number of Beans in the Wheelbarrow for the chance to win a fantastic Butlins Family Day Pass for a family of four, generously donated by the Butlins team. We’d love to see you there and thank you in person for being such an important part of our community.

Thank you for the support as always and particularly to everyone that has kindly donated lots of lovely prizes for the tombola for the Porlock Fair, we are very grateful. 

If you are planning to shop in the next few days, we have completely run out of crackers, coffee, sugar, jam and marmalade, so if you are able to pick up one or two of these items during your next shop, it would make an immediate difference to our shelves.

If we could request the following items that are most needed, we would be very grateful.

• Instant Coffee or Hot Chocolate
• Jam and Marmalade
• Tinned Potatoes/Packets of Mash
• Tinned Fish-tuna, sardines, mackerel
• Sugar
• Crackers/Savoury Snacks/Crisps
• Tinned Fruit
• Hot Dogs
• Individual Juices or squash drinks
• Individual puddings, rice pudding/custard
• Jars of fish or meat paste
• Breakfast bars/porridge pots

No fresh, chilled, frozen, damaged, out-of-date or home-made items please!
Please do not leave open or out of date items in our collection boxes.

We try and include items in our packs that will allow people that may find themselves homeless or in temporary accommodation the opportunity to have as varied a diet as possible.

Thank you as always, nothing ever gets wasted. If you can offer some alternative diet items that would also be great. We have suddenly had a demand for gluten free and dairy free produce, and we are currently supporting a number of families with these requirements.

Items can be dropped on at one of numerous drop off locations…

If you ever are unsure what you would like to donate or feel unsure that what you are donating is useful, we are always grateful for monetary donations too which is another way that you could help. You can be sure that the money will go towards projects that will offer further food support to the community.

Wishing you all the best from the team at WSFC

Residents at the YMCA had been relying on staff laptops to complete online benefit applications. Now, thanks to Computers4Good, there’s a dedicated device on-site, used solely for that purpose, fully looked after by the YMCA team.

For residents like Chris and Glen, it means one less obstacle at a time when every bit of support counts.

Thank you, Computers4Good, for your generosity and for trusting us to pass the impact on. This is what community looks like.

We couldn’t do this without volunteers like Judy and the team giving their time so generously. Thank you for stepping up when it mattered!

I hope this message finds you well and that you’re enjoying the summer months, with all the exciting sporting events and opportunities to spend time with family and friends.

It’s been another busy month at the food cupboard, with many local people reaching out for support. Thanks to the generosity of our community, we have been able to keep the cupboard stocked, and we are truly grateful for the kindness and compassion shown by so many.

If we could request the following items that are most needed, we would be very grateful.

• Instant Coffee or Hot Chocolate
• Corned Beef/Tinned Ham/Spam
• Tinned Potatoes or Packets of Mash
• Tinned Ravioli, Macaroni Cheese Spaghetti Hoops
• Tinned Vegetarian meals
• Sugar
• Instant Pasta Sachets
• Cup-a-Soups
• Tinned Fruit
• Jars of Fish or Meat spread
• Jam and Marmalade
• Hot Dogs
• Savoury Crackers
• Squash or Fruit Juice
• Individual Juices or squash drinks

No fresh, chilled, frozen, damaged, out-of-date or home-made items please!
Please do not leave open or out of date items in our collection boxes.

We try and include items in our packs that will allow people that may find themselves homeless or in temporary accommodation the opportunity to have as varied a diet as possible.

Thank you as always, nothing ever gets wasted. If you can offer some alternative diet items that would also be great. We have suddenly had a demand for gluten free and dairy free produce, and we are currently supporting a number of families with these requirements.

Items can be dropped on at one of numerous drop off locations…

If you ever are unsure what you would like to donate or feel unsure that what you are donating is useful, we are always grateful for monetary donations too which is another way that you could help. You can be sure that the money will go towards projects that will offer further food support to the community.

Wishing you all the best from the team at WSFC