Middle of the Hill Community Group is centred around Nouncells Cross in Stroud (Gloucestershire). Our dedicated team of volunteers run a foodhub from our small community room to support neighbours who are experiencing food inequality and providing an opportunity for everyone to play their part in reducing food waste. We collect surplus food from supermarkets and the farmers market in Stroud to stock our shelves, fridge and freezer for the three sessions each week that our foodhub is open. Some items to not often become surplus as they have a long shelf life, such as tins and cupboard staples like pasta, so we buy these for the foodhub.
We are a community group run by the community for the community. Coming together we are able to look out for each other and make our little corner of Stroud a happier and more connected place to live and a true community. We know that many of our neighbours live with a number of challenges such a social isolation and economic hardship and sharing surplus food from supermarkets and through our partnership with Fare Share South West we aim to make life just that little bit easier for neighbours who may be struggling. Our foodhub is also able to provide toiletry and hygiene products through our partnership with The Hygiene Bank and we are expanding what we do into a community café so that neighbours can come together and share the food we collect and are beginning to cook with.
We also run a busy gardening group enabling the community to take greater pride and ownership over the area we share and to grow fruit and vegetables for the foodhub. This gives an opportunity for neighbours to get to know each other and spend time in the outdoors which is especially important as the flats at Nouncells Cross do not have gardens or private balconies.
The community group has been in existence for over 20 years but since we have been running the food hub (we started this in January 2021) we have seen the huge difference this has made to so many people (we have can have up to 30 people visiting each time we are open) and the huge range of benefits people coming together to support each other can bring.
