Crossroads Community Hub and Cheshire West Voluntary Action (CWVA) are working together to launch the Greenway Grocer, providing an opportunity for everyone to easily access affordable fruit and vegetables.
The Greenway Grocer is a bike that will use the Greenway cycle path to visit different areas of Chester, taking healthy food to people in their own communities where it’s needed most.
The project will form strong links with local organisations and people so the Greenway Grocer can pop up in these communities on a regular basis and become a trusted way for people to access affordable fruit and vegetables, which will be provided by Hoole Food Market.
There are also plans for families eligible for Healthy Start vouchers to access fruit and vegetables through the Greenway Grocer. This scheme provides families with vouchers to purchase healthy produce.
Specialist food infrastructure is now part of CWVA’s offer to members and the skills and expertise of its team will be used to support Crossroads Community Hub deliver the project.
It will build on all the work Crossroads Community Hub has done during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing emergency food to around 100 families each month.
Rev Andy Glover, Minister of Hoole Baptist Church, Lead Partner of Crossroads Community Hub, said: “The Hub began helping provide emergency food parcels to those specifically impacted by the pandemic and we’re now excited to have the opportunity to provide affordable food, alongside emergency food, through the Greenway Grocer project.
“It’s always been our desire to provide food to feed bodies and communities and fill hearts with hope through the work of the Hub.”
Steph Ellis, Food Strategy Lead at CWVA, added: “It’s so important everyone works together to help people access the food they need so that’s why we decided to introduce specialist food infrastructure at CWVA.
“We’re delighted to be supporting Crossroads Community Hub with this project as it’s a really innovative way to get food out to communities that need it the most.
“Crossroads Community Hub will be delivering this project and we’ll be there as a trusted partner, offering support around things like strategy, volunteer management, training, communication and marketing and much more.
“We plan to launch our West Cheshire Food Strategy alongside many different partners in the near future and the Greenway Grocer is an exciting model we want to try as part of that.”
The Cheshire West Crowd, a crowdfunding platform set up by the Council in partnership with Spacehive, is being used to generate funding for the project and 25 per cent of the £20,349 target has already been raised.
Support the Greenway Grocer through the Cheshire West Crowd
More details will be shared about the Greenway Grocer and how people can access support over the coming months.
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