Friends of Hardie Park in Stanford-le-hope are continuing to run a community food Pop Up operation from the cafe helping to reduce food waste, and providing for local residents in need. The park’s little green van, driven by volunteer James, collects supermarket surplus daily from M & S and Lidl. The food is available to the community to take if they need, many users donate where they can. Funds raised help the park to provide a valuable service, keeping the van on the road and food refrigerated at the cafe ready for customers. The pop-up is open between 12-3 daily manned by volunteers. The produce range varies from day to day including chilled foods, breads, cakes, vegetables, ready meals and flowers. The park also works with local primary schools to direct food where it is needed and urges families to make use of the pop-up should they need help in these tough and trying times.
Fabiana Goodall, Trustee of Friends of Hardie Park said, ‘The Pop Up has enabled us to help our community in a variety of ways, as well as directly reducing landfill, and helping families in need, we’ve been able to provide a covid safe way for people to access food on a daily basis. It’s been a lifeline for many, and we are delighted to be able to combine that with our other community initiatives to support our community.’
No membership, no tokens just a smiling volunteer at the cafe to help you when you visit. The cafe indoor seating area recently opened on 17 May which will hopefully encourage more customers to make use of the food available. Some days the cake, pastries, bread and veg delivery is quite large, on these occasions the surplus is shared with Thurrock district nurses, Orsett and Corringham Fire Stations and various Thurrock and Basildon Hospital wards. Chickens, geese, ducks and pigs in the local area also benefit from excess surplus, Hardie Park Pop-Up really does provide food for all!
Contact details: Hardie Park Cafe, Hardie Road, Stanford-le-Hope, Essex SS17 0PB
Phone: 07935 868835
Email: info@friendsofhardiepark.co.uk Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LoveHardiePark
Facebook:www.facebook.com/LoveHardiePark