As Spring has arrived across West Somerset, we wanted to share some of the lovely things that have been happening at WSFC over the past few months. From community donations and kitchen creativity to new partnerships and events, it’s been a busy season and we’re so grateful for the support of our local community.

Food Bags Available in Porlock Library

If you know anyone in Porlock who may need a little extra support with food, please do let them know we’re here to help. Food bags are available every week at Porlock Library and no referral is required; people can simply drop in and speak to a member of the team.

Sometimes taking that first step can feel difficult, so helping us spread the word really does make a difference.

Cook-ups at the Pantry

We’ve been very busy in the Pantry kitchen this Spring, making the most of the ingredients coming into the Pantry and finding creative ways to use them.

Our wonderful volunteer, Linda, recently cooked up some delicious Mexican-inspired potato cakes using Tex-Mex dips available through the Pantry. Members who sampled them absolutely loved them, and several took the recipe home to recreate using ingredients from their Pantry bags.

It’s been lovely to see how simple ingredients can become something tasty with a little imagination. The recipe is now available on our website and we’re planning to upload more Pantry-inspired recipes very soon.

Success of Our Easter Appeal

Our Easter Egg campaign was a huge success this year and we were genuinely overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity shown across the community.

Thanks to support from local businesses, supermarkets, and our social media appeal, we were able to meet all agency requests, stock the Pantry and include an Easter egg in every food bag we distributed. We even had enough surplus donations to share with Moorland Foodbank.

Most incredibly, we achieved all of this without purchasing a single Easter egg ourselves, a true community effort.

The response from families was incredibly moving, with tears, hugs and so much gratitude. It was a reminder that treats many of us take for granted have become real luxuries for many households.

Huge thanks in particulars Webbers, Amanda-Louise Funeral Services and The Bridal Boutique for their fantastic support of the appeal.

Chocolate treats from Butlin’s

We also had a surprise chocolate delivery earlier this Spring when Butlin’s kindly donated leftover selection boxes and Easter Eggs (all safely in date, of course!).

These were shared across our Minehead and Porlock communities and were very gratefully received.

Party in the Park with Minehead Rotary Club

We were delighted to attend Party in the Park on 9th May in Blenheim Gardens, an event returning for the first time in several years following the Covid pandemic.

It was a fantastic day with entertainment, food, and activities for all ages, and we really enjoyed meeting people at our stall, chatting about the work we do and raising awareness of the support available locally.

Our “Guess the Number of Creme Eggs in the Jar” challenge also proved very popular, together with our Tombola! Over £300 was raised, thank you. 

This Month’s Shortages

Any non-perishable food items are always gratefully received:

• UHT Milk 1 litre
• Instant Coffee or Hot Chocolate
• Sugar
• Squash and Fruit Juice/Individual Juice
• Corned Beef
• Tinned Potatoes or Packets of Mash
• Tinned Tomatoes
• Tinned Ravioli, Macaroni cheese, spaghetti hoops
• Crisps and Savoury Crackers
• Pasta ‘n’ Sauce sachets
• Cup a Soups
• Individual desserts-rice puddings, custard pots
• Tinned Fruit
• Pasta Sauce or Curry Sauce
• Jars of fish spread or meat spread

The 3 items we have completely run out of are

• Tinned tomatoes
• Squash bottles or Fruit Juice
• Savoury Crackers

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.

Contacting Us Following Closure of Citizens Advice in Minehead (for food support enquiries only)

Like many people locally, we were very sorry to hear about the closure of Citizens Advice in Minehead after 48 years of supporting the community. The closure has been linked to rising operational costs and ongoing funding pressures.

Over the years, Citizens Advice played an important role in helping local residents access essential support, including food provision.

If you become aware of anyone needing food support in the coming weeks or months, please contact us directly via our website. We are here to help.

Request for Dog Food Donations

We know that for many people, pets are part of the family. During difficult times, families are often doing everything they can to continue caring for their animals too.

We have recently signed up to the RSPCA’s Pet Food Bank Partnership which allows us to apply for pet food monthly and this is enhancing our supplies. 

We have also received several bags from the community following our call for help, thank you. 

Return of Our Bags

A gentle reminder that we’d really appreciate the return of our reusable food bags where possible. Returned bags can be placed in our supermarket donation bins, making it easy for people to drop them back while shopping.

Every bag returned helps us reduce costs and continue supporting more people.

Welcome to Our New Trustee Treasurer

We are delighted to welcome Chris Nurden as the new Trustee Treasurer on the WSFC Board. We’re very much looking forward to working together and are grateful to have his support and expertise moving forward.

Thank You

Finally, we’d like to say a huge thank you to all the fantastic businesses and supporters in across West Somerset who continue to help us throughout the year, along with everyone who hosts donation stations or contributes in any way.

It means such a lot when communities come together to support one another, and we simply couldn’t do what we do without you.

Thank you so much

These were inspired by the Tex-Mex dips available in the Pantry this week, showing just how creative you can get with the ingredients provided.

A few members had a taste and absolutely loved them, and some even took the recipe home to try themselves using this week’s Pantry bags!

It’s a great example of how simple ingredients can be turned into something delicious and different.

This recipe uses mashed potato (you could use sweet potatoes) to which fried onion, pepper and Mexican inspired species are added. Once assembled (as rounds, logs spheres or triangles) they are cooked and served with a chilled salsa dip selection. In this recipe they are oven baked until golden but could equally be air fried or shallow fried.  

Experiment with the seasoning. You could leave out the beans (but they do give some protein, colour and texture) and add peas or sweetcorn instead, for example.  

Ingredients 

• 3 large potatoes (suitable for mashing) 
• 1 onion 
• 1 pepper 
• ½ teaspoon chilli or cayenne powder 
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika  
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin 
• ¼ teaspoon garlic granules 
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper 
• ¼ teaspoon salt 
• ½ can black or red kidney beans 
• Oil 

Method 

Peel the potatoes. Cut into even pieces. Place in pan of water. Bring to boil. Once boiling, turn down heat and simmer until soft. Drain. Mash with a fork or potato masher.  

Peel and finely dice the onion. Wash, halve and deseed the pepper. Cut into 5mm dice. Fry in a little oil until soft (10 to 15 minutes). Once softened, add the chilli powder, smoked paprika and cumin. Stir and fry for 1 to minutes to cook out the spices. 

Add onion mix to the mashed potato with the garlic granules, salt and pepper. Mix to combine. 

Drain the beans, Place in a sieve and wash. Dry thoroughly. Stir carefully through the spicy potato. 

Once cool enough to handle, shape. Brush with oil and bake on a lined tray in a preheated oven gas 7/190°Cfor 30 minutes, carefully turning halfway through.  

Serve with a dip selection alongside other Mexican dishes of your choice. 

Thank you for supporting the West Somerset Food Cupboard 
by donating food items for local distribution.

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

• UHT Milk 1 litre
• Crisps and Savoury Snacks
• Pasta ‘n’ Sauce sachets & Rice Sachets
• Cup a Soups
• Savoury Crackers
• Hotdogs, Meatballs or Corned Beef tins
• Pasta Sauce or Curry Sauce

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.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you for your incredible support with our Easter donations this year.

Thanks to your generosity, we have been able to distribute Easter eggs to all our pantry members, as well as the agencies we support. This simply would not have been possible without the kindness and commitment shown by our community.

We are especially grateful to our local supermarkets for their generous donations, and to Webbers Estate Agents and Amanda Louise Funeral Directors for kindly collecting eggs on our behalf.

Your support has made a real difference, and we are truly appreciative of everything you have contributed.

Like all hard-working organisations, our work must continue. With the world becoming increasingly uncertain, rising food prices, and growing pressure on household budgets, it is more important than ever that we keep going to ensure no one in Minehead goes hungry. Your support is needed now more than ever.

Wishing you all the best from the team at WSFC

How wonderful is it to see the daffodils flowering and some Spring weather after all that rain.

We have had a busy start to the year and after such fantastic support building up to Christmas we were able to start the year with bursting cupboards. Thank you so much to everyone that donated during this time. We sent out over 190 Christmas bags, packed with a wonderful selection of Christmas products and food staples. We had the most amazing response from recipients, so thank you, you really did make a difference.

And the donations have continued…

Following the Christmas celebrations, Butlins found themselves with an excess of chocolate. Thankfully they thought of us and kindly donated over 500 boxes of Christmas selection boxes in the New Year and we have been busy distributing these via all our wonderful agencies to ensure that families that don’t usually get the special treat of chocolate can spoil themselves. Thank you Butlins for thinking of us and not letting this excess from Christmas go to waste. Every box has been very gratefully received.

We also received a generous donation of pancake mix for Shrove Tuesday from Morrisons. We were able to provide the opportunity for all our Pantry members to participate in the joy of making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Thank you to Chris the manager for your support with this.

This Month’s Shortages

Any non-perishable food items are always gratefully received:

• UHT Milk 1 litre
• Hotdogs, Meatballs or Corned Beef tins
• Fray Bentos Pies
• Cup a Soups
• Tinned Potatoes/Sachets of Instant Potato
• Squash and Fruit Juice
• Individual desserts-jellies, fruit, rice puddings
• Jam, Marmalade or spreads
• Sugar
• Pasta ‘n’ Sauce sachets & Rice Sachets
• Tinned Carrots

We cannot accept open or out of date items. Please do not leave these items in our collection boxes.

Easter is fast approaching and we would like to ensure all our families can receive the treat of an Easter Egg at this time. Please can I ask that you add an extra egg to our donation baskets at Easter time.

A lovely treat for our Pantry members!

Linda, our fantastic volunteer, has been busy in the kitchen and kindly cooked her family’s apple cake recipe which dates back 50 years. This special recipe has been used over the years for celebration days for the Dunster Orchard and the pantry members got to taste the cake and take away the ingredients and the recipe.

WSFC attends Connects Minehead

What a fantastic morning Sara our Team Leader had at Amicus Law’s recent business breakfast networking event, Minehead Connects, held at The Beach Hotel. We’d like to thank Amicus Law Solicitors for organising the event and inviting us along. It was a great opportunity to network with other local organisations and strengthen community connection.

Are you looking for a Charity Trustee role?

We’re inviting applications for a Treasurer Trustee to join our friendly and committed board, as our current Treasurer, Su Sharrocks, prepares to step down after more than two years in the role. “We are incredibly grateful for the strong foundations that Su has helped put in place,” said Katrina Midgley, Chair of Trustees. “As demand for our services continues to grow, appointing a new Treasurer will help ensure we can continue supporting local people safely and sustainably.”

How to apply: If you’re interested in becoming a Treasurer Trustee, please get in touch for an informal conversation: info@wsfoodcupboard.org.uk or phone: 07795 080637.

Other ways you can support us

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 % of their profits one of their chosen charities.

Thank you for your support in 2026

The charity supports individuals and families across West Somerset who are experiencing food insecurity, providing essential food supplies and practical support to people facing financial hardship. Like many local charities, demand for support has increased significantly during the ongoing cost of living crisis.

The Treasurer Trustee plays a vital role in helping the charity remain financially sustainable, providing oversight of finances and supporting long-term planning to ensure funds are used effectively to support the local community.

Su Sharrocks, a qualified accountant, joined West Somerset Food Cupboard shortly after moving to the area and was keen to use her professional skills to give back locally.

Su said “When we moved to the area, I was looking for a way to get involved in the local community and meet people. I’d done voluntary work before, but West Somerset Food Cupboard was the first charity I actively chose to join. As a qualified accountant, using my finance skills felt like the best way to contribute.

“It’s been incredibly rewarding to be involved with a young charity and help put some of the building blocks in place for the future, from setting up QuickBooks and submitting the charity’s first Gift Aid claim, to supporting staff with day-to-day financial processes. I’ve met a fantastic group of trustees, staff and volunteers, all deeply committed to helping others.

“It’s a very welcoming community, so much so that my family got involved too. My husband and daughter will continue volunteering, but it feels like the right time for me to step aside and let someone new take on the Treasurer role.”

West Somerset Food Cupboard welcomes applications from all backgrounds, but is particularly keen to hear from individuals with finance, accountancy or previous treasurer experience. No prior trustee experience is required.

“We are incredibly grateful for the strong foundations that Su has helped put in place,” said Katrina Midgley, Chair of Trustees. “As demand for our services continues to grow, appointing a new Treasurer will help ensure we can continue supporting local people safely and sustainably.”

How to apply

Anyone interested in becoming a Treasurer Trustee is encouraged to get in touch for an informal conversation.

• Application deadline: end March 2026
• Contact: email: info@wsfoodcupboard.org.uk or phone: 07795 080637

We welcome all applications but are particularly interested in hearing from individuals who have experience in a treasurer role and/or finance/accountancy skills.

If you are interested please email info@wsfoodcupboard.org.uk

Thank you for supporting the West Somerset Food Cupboard 
by donating food items for local distribution.

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

• UHT Milk 1 litre
• Tins of meat-minced beef, casserole
• Hotdogs & Meatballs
• Fray Bentos Pies
• Corned Beef
• Tinned Potatoes – small & large
• Sachets of Instant Potato Mash
• Squash and Fruit Juice
• Individual Puddings-jellies, fruit, rice puddings
• Jam, Marmalade or spreads
• Sugar
• Instant Pasta Sachets
• Small tins of beans or spaghetti

No fresh, chilled, frozen, damaged, out-of-date or home-made items please!

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.

I don’t know if you are like me, but I always feel slightly relieved when January is out of the way, and we are slowly heading closer to longer days and warmer weather. Let’s hope it stops raining soon. 

I hope all is well with you all, we have had a busy start with the year with lots of activity to get all the generous donations out to the families so we can continue the strong support we showed running up to Christmas. Thank you as always for your support.

You will over the next few weeks see that we are advertising for a new Treasurer Trustee role. If anyone feels they have the skills required for the role and would like to consider becoming a Trustee of this wonderful charity, please do contact me and I can put you in touch with our chairman to find out more. We would be very grateful of the support for this vital role. 

If I can take this opportunity to remind you all that they are many ways to support us as well as with donations and one way that could make a big difference this year is by signing up for a Co-op reward card. If you register for their loyalty card and select us as your chosen charity we will receive a share of the profits of Co-op at the end of the year. This money would help with our ever-increasing running costs and increase the opportunities we can offer to the community we support. https://www.coop.co.uk/membership

Please take a moment to have a look with this link:    https://www.coop.co.uk/membership

Also, whilst you are on the computer, can I ask that you consider looking at the easy fundraising website too, we are currently receiving money this way by people supporting us when they shop online. This doesn’t cost you anything extra and the money comes directly from the companies you are purchasing through.  We have managed to receive over £600 this way so far, this financial year and that is from 32 supporters. Imagine how much we could receive if every one of our friends and supporters adopted us as their chosen charity for 2026. Please help us to increase our funds in whatever way you can.  https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk

Wishing you all the best from the team at WSFC

Thank you for supporting the West Somerset Food Cupboard 
by donating food items for local distribution.

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

• Tinned Fish
• Tins of meat-minced beef, casserole
• Hotdogs & Meatballs
• Fray Bentos Pies
• Corned Beef
• Tinned Potatoes – small & large
• Sachets of Instant Potato Mash
• Squash and Fruit Juice
• Individual drink cartons – 200ml
• Individual Puddings-jellies, fruit, rice puddings
• Sugar
• Crackers/Breadsticks
• UHT Milk 1 litre

No fresh, chilled, frozen, damaged, out-of-date or home-made items please!

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.

As we welcome the New Year, we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported the Food Bank during the run-up to Christmas. Thank you to your kindness, nearly 200 bags were given out, and they were all packed full of great food for people and families in our community.

We’re so grateful for every donation, every volunteer, and every kind word of support. Your generosity really did make a difference, I wasn’t sure how I was going to deliver what we needed at the beginning of October because our cupboards were so low, but the community really did come together, and the generosity was unbelievable. We now head into the New Year with real strength and the work continues, so thank you for being part of it.

Wishing you all the best from the team at WSFC

It’s that time of year again when we’re all getting ready for Christmas. Here at WSFC, we’re busier than ever collecting donations in the community and packing Christmas food bags, set to be distributed on 11th December to our agencies and support groups in time for people to stock their cupboards and plan for their big day!

Big hearted Miles Tea & Coffee provides a year’s supply of tea, coffee and hot chocolate to us

We’re delighted that Miles Tea & Coffee has joined forces with us to provide a year’s supply of tea and coffee for our emergency food bags, making a sustainable social impact in the local community of West Somerset where it has a production site in Minehead. We’re especially proud to be partnering with such a well-loved local business, a real example of local heritage supporting local people.

Refurbished laptop donated by Computers4Charity

We’re so grateful to Computers4Charity who donated a refurbished laptop to us at their Tech 4 Reuse event. The refurbished laptop will help us to continue our work in managing referrals and coordinating volunteers faster, getting help to families when it matters most.

We’re proud to be part of the @coopuk Local Community Fund. To support us please go to membership.coop.co.uk/causes/97711

Linda’s homemade breads delight pantry members

One of our amazing volunteers, Linda, cooked two delicious breads for our Pantry members — parsnip, parmesan & sage and butternut squash, cheddar & rosemary. These recipes matched the ingredients available in the Pantry that week, and members also received a recipe card so they can try them at home!

Tesco FareShare campaign delivers big results

We were thrilled to take part in the Tesco FareShare campaign on 27-29 November, both with food donations and with volunteering to pack bags. The weekend was a great success with our team of volunteers helping in store and over 400kg of food being donated by the community over 4 days. What a brilliant team effort: we can’t thank everyone enough, especially Tesco/Fareshare for hosting the event. We can ensure you nobody will be going hungry this Christmas thanks to you.

This Month’s Shortages

Any non-perishable food items are always gratefully received:

• Tinned Vegetables
• Tinned Fish
• Tins of meat-minced beef, casserole
• Hotdogs & Meatballs
• Fray Bentos Pies
• Corned Beef
• Tinned Potatoes – small & large
• Sachets of Instant Potato Mash
• Squash and Fruit Juice
• Individual drink cartons-200ml
• Individual Puddings-jellies, fruit, rice puddings
• Sugar
• Crackers/Breadsticks
• UHT Milk 1 litre

We cannot accept open or out of date items. Please do not leave these items in our collection boxes.

Generosity from our Local Community

A huge thank you to local growers and supermarkets that help keep our Pantry going week to week:

• Porlock Allotments and Orchard
• Plowright Organic
• Alcombe Co-op
• Lidl Minehead
• Richard Little Butchers
• Deane Barton Free Range Eggs
• and other generous donations from within the community

A big shout-out also goes to:

• The Dunster and Porlock Community Orchard …. for donating 100 bottles of apple juice – a really delicious and truly local addition to our Christmas food bags.
• Poundland Minehead … for all their food collections which has made a significant boost for our emergency food bags and Pantry members.
• Generous food donations from the local WI, who also recently invited us to talk about WSFC’s activities and work in the community.
• Beautiful Christmas food donations from the Lion’s Club and our Rotary organisation.

Fundraising on Black Friday!

On Black Friday we asked supporters to help us for FREE by registering with easyfundraising. Over 4,000 retailers donate when you shop through @easyfundraising at any time of year – at no extra cost to you! All it takes is to sign up, use the app when you shop, and you’ll be helping support our work every time you buy something online. Please sign up at: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/west-somerset-food-cupboard. Why not add donation reminder to your device and you’ll never miss an opportunity to donate: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/donation-reminder/chrome/update/.

We have increased our supporters from 19 to 30 since that weekend and we have raised over £500 so far, so please try and join if you can, it really does make a difference.

Thank you for all your incredible support during 2025

Things are starting to get busy with preparations for Christmas. We’re so grateful for the generous harvest festival donations we have received—thank you for helping us keep our shelves stocked! Even though we are looking ahead to December the last couple of months have been so positive.

Generosity from our Local Community –

We are very grateful to Minehead & West Somerset Hockey Club who donated the money from their Summer League charity event to us and also Exmoor Search and Rescue. Two great causes in West Somerset!

We were also thankful to Amanda-Louise Funeral Services for their generous donations and support. 
And over the moon to have received £600 from Asda’s Foodbank Fundamentals grant funding to help provide emergency food. Our volunteers and the local community know that food poverty can affect any of us through unexpected challenges in our lives and we can all feel an extra confidence in the charity’s ability to support people in difficulties.

West Somerset Food Cupboard is now part of the @coopuk Local Community Fund. To support us please download the Co-op App, and become a member and choose our cause, so we can receive a share of £5m.

This Month’s Shortages

Any non-perishable food items are always gratefully received:

• Tinned Hot or Cold Meat
• Tinned Potatoes or Sachets of Instant Potato Mash
• Breadsticks/crackers
• Porridge Pots
• Pasta Sauce & Cooking Sauces
• Squash and Fruit Juice Cartons
• Individual Puddings (small)
• UHT Milk 1 litre
• Sugar

Christmas Donations

This month we are planning for Christmas so would love donations of:

• Christmas Treats – Chocolates, Christmas Puddings, Fruit Cakes, Christmas biscuits
• Pickles, chutneys cranberry sauce
• Gravy Granules, Stuffing Packets, Bread Sauce Sachets.
• Christmas Biscuits/Chocolate Assortment Packs
• Crisps & Nuts
• Chocolate Selection Packs or Sweets
• Cheese Crackers/Savoury Biscuits
• Tins of cold meat

We cannot accept open or out of date items. Please do not leave these items in our collection boxes.

The Local Pantry continues to provide fresh nutritious food. Around 15 items of fresh food for £4.50 per week. Sign up for a 6 month membership.

West Somerset Food Cupboard is looking for new board members to help us continue our work to provide free emergency food parcels and affordable surplus food to those who need it most. If you’re interested in helping please get in touch for an initial chat.

Gift Aid Helps us Increase your Donation by 25%. When one of our regular donors completed a Gift Aid form recently we were able to back claim more than £200 in gift aid for their previous donations. Amazing! Even for a one-off gift if you are able to gift aid the donation we get the extra amount from HMRC at no cost to you. If you need a Gift Aid form please ask one of the team or email su.sharrocks@wsfoodcupboard.org.uk

Thank you, everyone—together we really are making a real difference!

Wishing you all the best from the team at WSFC