South Tyneside charity looks to ease food costs for more families
A South Tyneside charity is looking to give more residents access to affordable food.
Hospitality & Hope are looking to make affordable food more accessible to people in South Tyneside through their community shops.
In order to help more people, the charity is offering members who live within 1.5 miles of its shops in South Shields’ Horsley Hill Square, Fowler Street and Hudson Street the chance to introduce a friend.
In doing so, members will receive a shop for free and the referred friend will get theirs for half price should they become a member.
Hospitality & Hope operates it’s community shops on the basis that members can purchase 11 items for £5.
All the stock in the community shops is in date and comes from giant supermarket chains such as Aldi, Lidl, and Marks & Spencer.
A spokesperson for Hospitality & Hope said: “When we’re speaking to people, they really have a misconception of what the shops are.
“They think that it is stock that has been given from the foodbank but this isn’t the case as every bit of donated food that we get stays with the foodbank.
“The shops are stocked by a national food charity who deal with all the large supermarkets who then sell us the food at cost price, which then allows us to sell it at a huge discount.
“The reason why the shops are in the areas they are in is because we’ve had advice from the local government that they are highly deprived areas.
“So anyone living within 1.5 miles of the shops can use them with a membership and the £5 for 11 items acts as a donation that helps us continue our crisis services such as our foodbank and homelessness support accommodation.
“We’ve found from our own research that people think there is a stigma of going into the shops as they see them as the ‘next step up from a foodbank’ but anyone using the shops is actually helping us as a charity.”
Those who have a membership also gain access to Hospitality & Hope’s Food Hub, which is also located in Horsley Hill Square.
Memberships for Hospitality & Hope’s community shops are free, available to one per household and are not means tested, meaning anyone can sign up providing their live within 1.5 miles of a shop location.
You can find out more about Hospitality & Hope’s community shops by visiting: https://hospitalityandhope.org.uk/community-shops-south-tyneside/.
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