Plans for a landmark new food and essentials distribution hub are set to be approved by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority as part of a new regional partnership with Bristol Charities, to help provide support to more families across the West.
23,500 children live in households impacted by the two-child benefit cap, according to Department of Work & Pensions data analysed by the End Child Poverty Coalition. This means that, locally, 1,860 children in Filton and Bradley Stoke will benefit from that measure being scrapped in April.
The all-in-one site is likely to be a multimillion-pound warehouse space in the region of 30,000 square feet (about half the size of a football pitch) to serve as a central site to store, coordinate, and redistribute urgently needed items. These surplus items include food, household products, clothing and bedding, furniture and white goods, technology and school supplies.
The hub is the first of its kind in the country to be designed by a combined authority with local charities and councils, and plans have been developed with FareShare South West. It could include a fully equipped catering kitchen to provide vital space for cooking projects and community meals; skills and capacity-building support, including training in food hygiene; and other employment support such as work experience and apprenticeships for young people out of work.
FareShare South West works across the region to rescue high-quality food from the food industry and shares it with charities, food clubs and schools, turning an environmental problem into lasting social good.
This initiative has also been inspired by the example of the Multibank charity, launched by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, which works with a coalition of major retail manufacturers, suppliers, and philanthropists to give businesses a scaled donations point for their surplus stock which is donated via local charity organisations to provide vital support to families who are experiencing poverty.