Food Hub

FoodSavers offers high quality fresh and store cupboard food for a low weekly membership fee (typically £6). Much of our food is unwanted or surplus food, intercepted from being wasted. Membership also gives you the opportunity to attend cookery classes, save in a recognised Credit Union scheme, and enjoy other benefits, such as cookery classes, haircuts or volunteering.

• Save money on your weekly shop
• Save food from going to landfill
• Save in a recognised Credit Union scheme

Our pilot study in Bradford has painted a compelling picture of guests accessing the FoodSavers service feeling empowered to feed their families, pleased at having the choice and flexibility to pick their own food and grateful to contribute towards feeding themselves rather than relying on handouts. As one lady said,

I came in feeling suicidal and I am leaving feeling I have HOPE.

The FoodSavers Network is made up of independent affordable food outlets, clustered around a local partnership involving some or all of a local Credit Union, Council, and food network. These partnerships are facilitated and supported by the small FoodSavers central team. Each outlet operates independently and sources their own food. A partnership agreement governs the relationship between each outlet and the network, and between the Credit Union and the network.

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Key principles

The five key pillars of the FoodSavers Network are:

• Behaviour change
  FoodSavers looks hopefully towards a better future, building a culture of food and financial stability and sustainability, enabling members to make positive changes in their lives to achieve their goals. It affirms a culture of regular saving to build resilience.
• Choice
  Members choose their own food to their own tastes, rather than a pre-packed parcel.
• Dignity
  Members don’t have to answer intrusive personal questions (beyond ID verification) or have their financial details dug into. FoodSavers aims to enable every member to realise that they are valuable.
• Empowerment
  Members can make their own decisions and choices. FoodSavers normalises the shopping experience rather than the foodbank experience, and aims to build self-worth. It is intended to be a time-limited intervention, enabling people to get to a point where they no longer need to make use of the service, but can continue to embed its principles in their everyday life.
• Financial inclusion
  Members can gain access to, and knowledge of, appropriate financial services that meet their needs, delivered responsibly and sustainably.

FoodSavers recognises the importance of foodbanks in emergency provision, and affirms the excellent work done by all those involved. However, working with foodbanks and other support agencies, it aims to support members in moving beyond the initial crisis so that they do not have to remain dependent on free or low-cost food provision.

The Nourishing Communities fresh food voucher scheme provides individuals and families experiencing food insecurity with vouchers that can be redeemed for fresh, nutritious food at Darley Street Market and other participating locations. This cash-first approach promotes dignity, choice, and autonomy while supporting local food retailers.

If you are interested in becoming a referral partner, please contact Blanca on vouchers@foodsavers.org.uk.

If you are an individual looking to obtain vouchers, please get in touch and we can direct you to the most appropriate referral partner.

About the vouchers

The Nourishing Communities vouchers are aimed at supporting households to access fresh, nutritious food. They can be used to purchase:

• Fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Fresh meat and fish.
• Dairy products.
• Selected other nutritious food options.

Vouchers cannot be used to purchase:

• Chocolate, sweets and crisps.
• Pre-prepared food or ready-meals.
• Drinks.
• Alcohol or tobacco.
• Non-food items.

Following a successful referral, vouchers will be issued weekly. Vouchers are physical items, in denominations of £5. Note that change will not normally be given by retailers. They can be redeemed at a number of stalls on the middle floor of Darley Street Market.

Vouchers can be collected weekly from the FoodSavers Wellnest in Darley Street Market (middle floor).

• FoodSavers Wellnest, Darley Street Market (middle floor), BD1 3HH.
  Monday / Wednesday / Friday, 9-11am.
• The Good Shepherd Centre, West Lane, The Guard House, Keighley, BD22 6ES
  Wednesday, 9.30-11.00 am.

Additional retailers and collection points will be added in due course.

Monthly wellbeing support sessions are available alongside the vouchers offering a range of information, skills and support.

Referrals will be for up to six months (and for many people support will be shorter than this),
following which an assessment will be made as to other support that might be more appropriate.
The scheme is designed as a temporary intervention, rather than a long-term ongoing one.

Eligibility Criteria

To ensure that we reach those most in need, the following eligibility criteria apply to individuals or families being referred for voucher support:

Essential criteria:

• Live in Bradford Metropolitan District.
• Have not received food vouchers from this scheme in the past six months.
• At least one of:
  • Asylum seekers or refugees.
  • People who experience severe mental health issues where food insecurity is a real risk.

Prioritisation criteria:

• Families with children under 16 years old.

Locations accepting vouchers

This list will be updated as new locations are added.

Darley Street Market

• Dale Farm Foods
• Priestley’s Fishmongers
• Roswitha’s Deli
• Tropikal food
• Solly’s Fruit & Vegetables
• Taplins Butchers
• Ikhlas Halal Meat
• The Middle Eastern Pantry
• Fruit World
• Spice World

Keighley

• Jacks Fruit and Veg

The Storehouse is our ‘wholesale’ food hub, tackling food poverty and food waste by intercepting surplus and unwanted food from partners across Bradford, sorting and storing it, and redistributing it to people in need.

We distribute this intercepted food to FoodSavers outlets and other groups across Bradford, who use it in their provision to communities and groups around the district – whether that be afternoon snacks for activity centres working with disadvantaged children, lunch clubs for refugees and asylum seekers or community meals for the elderly or isolated.

Where our food comes from

Our partners donate food that is ‘unwanted’, which could be because they have over-ordered / over-produced, or because the food is nearing or past its best before date. All of our food is safe and of excellent quality, merely surplus to somebody else’s requirements.

Our food partners include supermarkets, wholesalers, local markets and other local traders.

Since we started, we have intercepted over 950 tonnes of food that would have otherwise gone to landfill.

If your charity or community organisation would be interested in benefiting from our food supply, please get in touch.

Likewise, if you are a food business that would like an outlet for your good quality surplus food then please let us know.

Find us.