Telford Food Share bosses start fundraiser to buy new base
Bosses at the Telford Food Share project have launched a GoFundMe campaign to try to raise funds to buy a new base after being left homeless.
Time ran out on Saturday at the town centre Rampart Way premises, with staff and stock needing to be out of the building by Wednesday.
Founder of the project Lea Bevan and her team spent last weekend taking food away and putting frozen goods into storage - the stock is expected to be absorbed at the project's Andover and Warrington facilities. They also have a base at Wellington but it is not as big as the town centre premises and can't take frozen goods
Lea has run the project since 2015. It sells surplus food and stock from local supermarkets and suppliers as well as stocking its own food bank.
Telford Food Share is estimated to have helped save 100 tonnes a month of food in Telford, with the stated aim of supporting hundreds of families in food poverty. As well as the store, the project has acted as a base for the Ukraine appeal in the town, packing and helping to deliver around 900 pallets.
Lea has identified a new, as yet un-named, venue which is available to buy, having seen a number of leads on some rental properties come to nothing, including the council-owned Co-Op building in Dawley, which she is still waiting to hear about.
"On Wednesday we will take the frozen stock to our other bases and it will be lost to the Telford Community," said Lea.
"We need to be out of the Rampart Way premises by then so we will stop providing the surplus food service in the town, although we won't stop looking for a new base and aim to be back as soon as possible.
"We haven't been successful in renting anywhere yet so are looking at alternatives such as buying a store and have identified a location.
"Obviously this would be a significant outlay but long term it might be more economical and give us a permanent home of our own. But whether we buy or rent, we figured we'd start a fundraiser either way to cover the costs.
"I am not ruling anything out and I determined it won't be the end of the Food Share project because our service is critical to our community and no other organisations locally can handle what we do.
For more information on the food share project, go to its Facebook page, or to donate to the fundraiser, which has raised over £800 so far, visit gofundme.com/f/building-for-food-share-project
