Save The Havens Food Cooperative

We had to make the incredibly difficult decision to announce that the Havens Food Cooperative evening collections would stop at the end of March 2025 due to a lack of funding. Accessing grants has become a perfect storm for several reasons, including the financial pressures local authorities face and the restructuring of government and lottery funding.

This is what will be lost:

• The positive environmental impact of not landfilling perishable surplus foods from 19 supermarkets—over 150 tonnes per annum—prevented the creation of harmful greenhouse gases.

• The sorting and rapid prioritised free redistribution of over 1.5 million pounds of still usable food since our creation.

• 365 days a year, providing food to hundreds of individuals and families, food banks, schools, support groups (pop-up pantries), community events, and social navigating advice.

• Providing emergency food bags.

• The support of 50 volunteers - the heart and soul of our organisation - who make almost 5,000 collections from individual supermarkets every year.

The public show of support has been heartwarming and humbling, and we were asked to create this page to enable those who could do so to try and save the service.

Thank you to everyone, past and present, for the amazing community organisation you helped to create. It is so important to hundreds of people.