Location for Teign Valley Larder
Donation protected
We need a Trailer!
We currently host all our food in church porches. However, we won't be able to do that forever! We need to raise funds for a trailer to host the Larder. This trailer will be parked in larger villages in the Teign Valley and open for people to use and donate to.
We photoshopped together an idea of what we are going for, but it will likely look quite different when we finally get it built. Please donate to help us out.
About Us
The Teign Valley Larder is a local community food bank for a small valley west of Exeter in the county of Devon, England.
We are 100% volunteer organised and operated, so every pence donated goes straight to providing food to families in our area.
The larder provides a similar service to a food bank, specifically for people in the Teign Valley who we thought would struggle to get to Exeter or Newton Abbott during lockdown, especially if avoiding public transport, but there are some important differences.
When we set it up in early May we were concerned that in a close rural community there could be a lot of stigma attached to using a food bank which might deter people from using it, even if in genuine need. So we operate on an honesty basis (no staff, checks or referrals). There were concerns that this would be open to abuse but the food we supply is pretty basic and we felt that even if one or two opportunists did take the odd can of beans or tuna that is a small price to pay for knowing that others won’t go hungry. In fact we haven’t noticed any signs of such abuse.
The Larder also does more than a food bank from which basic food is supplied. It can function as a loan or swap facility, so anyone who has run out of something (nappies seem the main thing!) can borrow some and return the equivalent item later, or just bring something else in lieu. The third function is to reduce food waste – long life items that are near or just past their ‘best before’ date but still perfectly edible, and surplus fresh vegetables from Whippletree and Teign Greens are also donated. Anyone can take these items, but we ask them to consider making a donation in return. This works well and we get regular donations of beans / soup / Fray Bentos pies etc as a result. The fact that different people visit the larder for different reasons – to donate, take fresh veg or swap things as well as just taking items – makes it even less embarrassing for people to come.
The main larder is in Christow (church porch) and we have ‘branches’ in Bridford and Dunsford – also church porches – and Ashton. We tried Doddi but it just wasn’t used. It’s hard to know precisely but we estimate we are helping at least 10 – 12 households regularly – we have a token system in Christow for users to tell us how many in their household, and most days we get 2 to 6 adult and 2 to 4 child tokens left. Not all our customers leave tokens though.
Because of our flexible way of operating the Charity Commission won’t register us (so sadly no gift aid) but we are a Community Interest Company which is the next best thing. We are eligible to apply for most, though not all grants. We’ve had grants from DNPA and various other groups offering funds for Covid-related community support – that was our start-up money as we have had to buy groceries each week to top up the food donations.
You can learn more about our group at our website by visiting here.
We currently host all our food in church porches. However, we won't be able to do that forever! We need to raise funds for a trailer to host the Larder. This trailer will be parked in larger villages in the Teign Valley and open for people to use and donate to.
We photoshopped together an idea of what we are going for, but it will likely look quite different when we finally get it built. Please donate to help us out.
About Us
The Teign Valley Larder is a local community food bank for a small valley west of Exeter in the county of Devon, England.
We are 100% volunteer organised and operated, so every pence donated goes straight to providing food to families in our area.
The larder provides a similar service to a food bank, specifically for people in the Teign Valley who we thought would struggle to get to Exeter or Newton Abbott during lockdown, especially if avoiding public transport, but there are some important differences.
When we set it up in early May we were concerned that in a close rural community there could be a lot of stigma attached to using a food bank which might deter people from using it, even if in genuine need. So we operate on an honesty basis (no staff, checks or referrals). There were concerns that this would be open to abuse but the food we supply is pretty basic and we felt that even if one or two opportunists did take the odd can of beans or tuna that is a small price to pay for knowing that others won’t go hungry. In fact we haven’t noticed any signs of such abuse.
The Larder also does more than a food bank from which basic food is supplied. It can function as a loan or swap facility, so anyone who has run out of something (nappies seem the main thing!) can borrow some and return the equivalent item later, or just bring something else in lieu. The third function is to reduce food waste – long life items that are near or just past their ‘best before’ date but still perfectly edible, and surplus fresh vegetables from Whippletree and Teign Greens are also donated. Anyone can take these items, but we ask them to consider making a donation in return. This works well and we get regular donations of beans / soup / Fray Bentos pies etc as a result. The fact that different people visit the larder for different reasons – to donate, take fresh veg or swap things as well as just taking items – makes it even less embarrassing for people to come.
The main larder is in Christow (church porch) and we have ‘branches’ in Bridford and Dunsford – also church porches – and Ashton. We tried Doddi but it just wasn’t used. It’s hard to know precisely but we estimate we are helping at least 10 – 12 households regularly – we have a token system in Christow for users to tell us how many in their household, and most days we get 2 to 6 adult and 2 to 4 child tokens left. Not all our customers leave tokens though.
Because of our flexible way of operating the Charity Commission won’t register us (so sadly no gift aid) but we are a Community Interest Company which is the next best thing. We are eligible to apply for most, though not all grants. We’ve had grants from DNPA and various other groups offering funds for Covid-related community support – that was our start-up money as we have had to buy groceries each week to top up the food donations.
You can learn more about our group at our website by visiting here.
Fundraising team: Teign Valley Larder Trailer (3)
Ted Miller
Organizer
Nathan Bushell
Team member
Vinny Logan
Team member
