community shop grimsby

Food redistributor Community Shop has opened its fourth store in Grimsby.

The store, which is located in Centre4 on the Nunsthorpe Estate, was able to open after £600,000 funding from the Big Lottery Fund. It joins Community Shop Athersley and Community Shop Goldthorpe, both in Yorkshire, as well as the London store Community Shop West Norwood.

It provides members with access to surplus food at discounted prices of up to 70%. It is open to people living in areas of deprivation and in receipt of welfare support.

The Grimsby store is the first Community Shop to be co-located in a bigger community space. It sits alongside other the services at Centre4, including the Community Learning Services, the Centre4 Advice team, Positive Activities and the Health & Wellbeing Collaborative Teams.

The revenue raised from food sales is invested into Community Hub, where members gain access to mentoring, advice, skills and business courses, as well as hot meals cooked from surplus in the Community Kitchen.

Young’s Seafood, Icelandic Seachill, McCain, Morrisons’ manufacturing arm and Sealord Caistor have all backed the initiative. Community Shop Grimsby is now actively looking for more local partners.

“We are delighted to be opening our new Community Shop in Grimsby. It is a town with a rich food heritage and we are incredibly grateful for all of the support we have received from North East Lincolnshire Council and the Big Lottery Fund,” said Community Shop founder and chairman John Marren.

Young’s Seafood financial controller Graham Pembroke added: “We are delighted to be supporting Grimsby’s first social supermarket and to be a part of an initiative which will continue to grow.”