Food sharing with a diverse community in Reading

The Warm Welcome Space Brookside Church, Earley in Reading has a very diverse range of guests. It’s part of the food sharing charity Share, sharing baskets of food, flowers and small gifts with visitors.

‍

Around 60 people receive fresh food each week, and up to 190 people visit the café area, many guests arrive at the space early and stay till closing time. Each week, Share has a raffle to make collecting the food fair and provide a fun, interactive experience for the guests.

The food share tables are weighed down with contributions from supermarkets in the area including M&S, Waitrose and Aldi. One of the parents said they received an M&S birthday cake for their children’s birthday the next day from the space and what a difference this made to them.

‍

Share creates a friendly atmosphere that ‘all this food would be going to waste otherwise’, so it not only combats hunger, social isolation and food waste, but also champions sustainability, creating a safe space for members of the community to be together without stigma.

‍

One regular guest said his support group shared the interactive Warm Welcome map so that he could find a community space over Christmas, when he would otherwise be on his own.

‍

Share, Earley connects with a youth club in the building which is a partnership of Brookside and Trinity another local church, that meets the day after the Warm Welcome Space is open and any spare food is given to the young people. This has also meant that many young people have started to volunteer at Share and shared the benefits of having this volunteering experience on their CV. One local school pupil helps collect food donations as part of their Duke of Edinburgh volunteering activity.

‍

Another came to the food share as a guest with her mum and has since become a regular volunteer supporting the space.

‍

It’s another example of a church space supporting its diverse community, and we’re delighted to shine a light on Brookside Church this Warm Welcome Week.

‍