Complete

The Ottery Larder

Funding required£2,000
Delivery timeframe2 weeks
LocationOTTERY ST. MARY

The Pitch

Problem statement

The Ottery Larder is a community fridge in East Devon. https://fb.watch/dOZOj3Qcwf/ We have been operating for 18 months and have seen demand increase significantly since the turn of the year. We collect waste and surplus food from local supermarkets and suppliers and hand out free of charge to anyone who needs it. This helps reduce the food sent to land waste, but increasingly we are helping those who are unable to buy as much food as they used to, or need to. In a town of around 10,000 we have seen over 1,000 customers and we regularly see over 100 households each week. We are being told often that we are a "lifeline" and "necessity" and we are being asked to help with different products.

Solution

We would like to open a Family Section where we distribute nappies, toys, books, wipes etc. We would also like to offer sanitary items for women and basic bathroom items such as toothpaste and soap. These items are not surplus or extra and so are not donated by supermarkets. We estimate £40 per week would allow us to purchase multi packs of these items and fulfil the local requirement. We have tried this with our own funds and know it is about the right amount, but we do not have funds to continue this indefinitely. The impact on local food poverty is already immense, we want to help young families escape poverty and also tackle period poverty locally.

Why are we best placed to deliver?

We already do. We are one of the larger community fridges, and using our booking system we manage a mailing list of over 800 customers who rely on us for information on offers such as vouchers for prepayment meters, public health food parcels and local projects. We have the volunteers, the location and the infrastructure to do this immediately, and we have been doing so for the last few weeks, but we only have funds to do this for another few months. Every government and media prediction says that the economy and cost of living crisis is going to get much worse and we want to ensure that we are here to stay to see people through.

Focus Areas

Delivery plan

Budget breakdown

Nappies, wipes,£800
Tampons, Towels£800
Toothpaste, Soap£400

Beneficiaries

250 people

Expected impact

We aim to save everyone who visits the Larder £10 to put towards other essentials. By continuing and expanding the Family Section we know we can make that £15 per family. With 2 visits per week that means we can save each family £30 at a time when every penny counts. We will be able to purchase nappies and toiletries at a discount thanks to local supermarket support and the volumes we are anticipating, so we are confident that every £1 we spend would save a family £2. We are also encouraging those that visit us to try and use local shops as much as possible where prices may be slightly higher than large supermarkets as customers have already saved enough to cover any excess. This could help save our high street. We also have currently 80 volunteers who enjoy what we do today, but would love to give more help and support to the families we support in our community.

Track record

We see over 100 different households each week, and over the last 19 months we have had 870 households make bookings with many more simply walking in. Around 40% of our customers are families with primary school or younger children. A large percentage of them ask if we could stock staples such as nappies. We have a children's book swap which is very popular and have had toys and clothes donated which we give out every day. We have a uniform swap which is also very popular. Our Social Media has a total reach of 32,000 over the last year with over 1,000 likes and our mailing list of over 800 regularly has an open rate of over 60%. We know we can reach the people in our area that need help.


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Ottery Community Volunteers

Social Enterprise