Getting food to the people who need it

Feed Our Community is Grounded’s food distribution project in Bournemouth (formerly known as Boscombe Community Fridge).

We run a number of initiatives to get food to the right places and the right people – those who really need it.

We pick up surplus food from supermarkets, cafes and other businesses. In addition, we provide fresh, seasonal, chemical-free fruit and vegetables from our gardens and home growing spaces. Food is then delivered to locations around the area either individually by volunteers, or in our Feed our Community van.

Our vision is to reduce food waste and use food surplus wisely in our community. We also aspire to:

  • Educate people on how to save food from being wasted, and how to waste less.
  • Set up centres where chefs can prepare surplus food, making it taste amazing, and then offer it for donation to those who want or need it
  • Broaden food collections from hotels and other businesses
  • Establish effective drop-off systems for charities and care organisations to use food.

Connect with us or volunteer

Get in touch if you would like more information about the support available, or want to volunteer to support Feed our Community.

Find us

how to ask for support

Feed our Community supports people and organisations in a range of different ways:

  • Households – Individuals and families facing hardship can register with us. There is no specific criteria or requirement except that the household us struggling to pay for food.
  • Charities and community groups – Hostels or projects who cater for people facing hardship e.g. YMCA and Hope Housing.

Because of our limited capacity to help we ask people to be honest about their situations and stop receiving when their circumstances change. We also ask people give us feedback via a survey that we offer out. This is purely for statistics and we do not use people’s personal details.

We don’t have any big application forms or referral process other than asking for the support.

2025 UPDATE: New registrations for weekly food shops are currently closed due to a large number of people on the waiting list.
 

The story so far…

The Boscombe Community Fridge project was set up in 2017 by a group of volunteers led by Jenny Mueller. The team always did more than just operating the Fridge and in April 2020, amidst the craziness of the first COVID-19 lockdown, the team there ramped up delivery of food to those who needed it in the community.

Grounded had been connected to the Community Fridge project from the start but when this crisis happened, we came alongside to support this work and in the process, came to the decision to adopt the project into the Grounded Community charity.

We recognised that the project was so much more than just a fridge in Boscombe Library. The volunteer team picked up food, took it to hostels, old people’s homes, schools and homeless shelters.

In one year, Community Fridge had distributed 50 tonnes of food. All of this from their own cars, all by volunteers and with great passion and effort.

Through many conversations and a shared vision to get food to people who need it, we decided to team up, and Feed Our Community was born. At Grounded, we struggled to distribute our amazing produce to those who really needed it but this partnership makes that happen…

The story continues…

Through the 2020 crisis many developments happened. Gaining a temporary home at Urban Shanti Community Studio in Boscombe gave us an opportunity to take stock and find a new way of working.

When the studio reopened we connected with Bournemouth Food Bank and were given a temporary space in their St Georges church space.

We also were in need of a vehicle during this time for larger pick ups. A local building company ‘Namaste Developments’ gave us temporary use of their van whilst society had halted. The food charity Hope For Food then contacted us to say they were getting a new van and would we like their old one. Fortunately one of our trustees, Chris, is a mechanic and set about getting our vehicle roadworthy.

Coming into 2021 not only is ‘Flo’ The Food Van sparkly and on the road, our arrangement with Food Bank was made permanent and we now have a packing room and office space at the St George’s Food centre. They have many other exciting plans for this space to become a free café, centre for training and enterprise and our own Grounded Gatherers will be based there to work on preserving foods and making the most of the resources we have as a community.

These developments and others have shown how together as a community we can do so much more!