St Dunstan’s Parish Church, Earle Road, Liverpool, L7 6HD – WEDNESDAYS 10am to 12pm
Granby Adult Learning Centre, 79 Granby Street, Liverpool, L8 2TU – FRIDAYS 10am to 12pm
What is the Community Market?
The Community Market is a food membership that provides 15 items of food or household goods for £1.50 per week. The food and household items are deemed to be surplus to requirement by supermarkets. The main aim of our Community Market is to support people who may be on the brink of using foodbanks. This early intervention will hopefully take the strain off of local foodbanks as well as giving residents the opportunity and to come together as part of the membership and sit, chat and have a cup of tea.
How does it work?
Micah Liverpool already receives items from supermarkets through the food recycling charity, FareShare. Through this service we are given items that cannot be sold by the supermarket but are still usable. An example could be a box of cereal that is featuring a limited time promotion on the box. Once the promotion has finished that box can’t be sold so it would traditionally go to landfill. Through organisations like FareShare that food is collected and then distributed to organisations that can use it in community cafes, food banks and community markets.
Why is it needed?
A Community Market is a great opportunity for Micah Liverpool and has two main positives.
The first is being able to serve and support a community that is in need.
Our location at Granby Adult Learning Centre is based in one of the most deprived wards in Liverpool, which is surprising giving how close it is to Liverpool City Centre. Only 26% of residents from the Granby area are classed as working full time (30+ hours per week), therefore 74% are classed as unemployed, receiving sickness benefit, retired, students or homemakers. Many of those, will be living with an income below the national average and may face further obstacles that can cause people to go in to poverty. A Community Market allows Micah to engage with people who need support whilst providing a service to the community.
The second positive is Micah Liverpool’s use of the membership fee.
Community Markets costs our members £1.50 per week. This money is then reinvested in to Micah Liverpool to fund activities such as Emergency Food Aid provision and the Recruitability Programme; money will also be reinvested in to the growth and expansion of the Community Market.
Benefits to those involved
A Community Market will benefit everybody involved:
Local residents
Have access to affordable food thereby alleviating financial strain and insecurity
Local community
We offer a community space for local residents to use and during our opening times you can sit and enjoy a warm space with a cup of tea or coffee, with other members of your community. This provides an opportunity for local people to sit down and chat to others, we hope this will help to reduce social isolation and loneliness
Increasing numbers
We hope the churches will benefit from local residents re-engaging with services. We will track the congregation numbers to see if there is an increase in worshipping as a result of the Community Market.
Micah Liverpool
We will benefit from additional finance streams created through the Community Market. There would also be added benefits such as volunteering opportunities for the Recruitability Programme and a projected reduction in the use of foodbanks in the local area, which in turn would reduce the pressure on the Micah Emergency Food Aid that is run nearby
If you would like any more information about the Community Market including how to get involved, how to support the market or how to become a member please contact:
nicher.awan@liverpoolcathedral.org.uk
0151 702 7206