Sarah Dunwell
Director of Social and Environmental Affairs
Company Shop
Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK
The produce left over at the end of this year’s London Produce Show is all being donated to Community Shop, the UK’s first "social supermarket,” located in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Community Shop will shortly be opening stores in London, and we’re delighted to have Sarah Dunwell, director of social and environmental affairs for parent organisation, Company Shop, at the event to explain the concept. As well as giving us an introduction to the social supermarket model, she will be explaining how the fresh produce industry can reduce waste and enhance sustainability by diverting surpluses to support shoppers struggling with poverty and on benefits.
The social supermarket idea is a brainchild of Company Shop, the largest commercial redistributor of surplus food and products in the UK. The parent company works with major retailers, brands and manufacturers to ensure that good food, which cannot be sold but is still perfectly edible, does not go to waste.
As delegates in London will know all too well, surpluses are hard to avoid in a consumer-focussed industry; they may be caused by forecasting errors, labelling issues, rejection of short shelf-life products or many other things. However, with Company Shop’s solution in place, retailers and manufacturers have access to a zero-to-landfill solution, where over 95 per cent of food handled gets eaten. Stock gets distributed throughout a network of staff shops and standalone, membership-only stores, which are open to people who work in food manufacturing.
Company Shop’s well-oiled redistribution model is delivering significant economic, environmental and social benefits across the UK, and the company won “Best Business Initiative” at The Grocer Gold Awards last year. However, whilst the business has always been environmentally motivated, Company Shop wanted to do even more to deliver greater social impact.
So, in December 2013, Company Shop decided to take the model out from behind factory gates and into areas of social deprivation, launching the UK’s first social supermarket pilot, Community Shop, which matched high-quality industry surpluses with people who need good food the most.
Sarah Dunwell had a key role in getting the first social supermarket open. She tells us a little more about getting it off the ground and shares her hope for the London Produce Show:
I’ve always been both a social entrepreneur and someone who is passionate about food. So when I was invited to join the Company Shop team in January 2013 to help set up Community Shop, it was an opportunity too important to turn down. What we are doing here is essentially bridging the gap between food surpluses that exist on the one hand and the food poverty that many working families are struggling with on the other.
It’s a little known truth that poverty now affects more households where someone has a job than households where no one works. Figures from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation show more than six million people live in poverty in the UK but have some form of household income. These are the people who’ve often got a part-time job but are having to make choices between things like eating and heating. It’s for these families and individuals that Community Shop is seeking to make the biggest difference.
Community Shop is offering struggling, working families access to cheap, quality surplus food, but also so much more. We understand that whilst access to cheap produce is great for our members, on its own it won’t address the issues that are pushing them towards food poverty in the first place. That’s why all our members also enrol with Community Hub.
Through Community Hub, we invite members to participate in mentoring schemes and receive free skills training, cookery classes and home budgeting. In the first store, our package of food and support has been so powerful that one member has now given their card back as they no longer need our help anymore. That’s what success looks like for us.
Our biggest challenge as we continue to grow is ensuring we get the surplus stock we know is out there onto our shelves and into members’ baskets. Community Shop is lucky enough to work with most of the major retailers, such as Asda, Morrisons, The Co-Operative, M&S and Tesco, and with major brands, including Mondelez, Nestlé, Ocado, Tetley, Young’s and Muller, but we are eagerly looking for new partners, particularly in the fresh produce category.
What better way to achieve real social impact for our business by helping us to grow our network with your surplus stock. Fresh produce is the hardest thing for us to get in regular supply, so we’re looking forward to meeting you at the show and would love to work with you beyond it.”
Sarah will be speaking at 4 p.m. on June 5 in the main seminar area on the balcony of the Grosvenor House hotel’s Great Room to tell us more. If you would like to contact her about working with Community Shop or Company Shop, you can do so at sarah.dunwell@staffshop.co.uk.
Here is a rundown of the two initiatives:
What is Company Shop?
Company Shop is a commercial redistributor of surplus food and products in the UK. The company works with all of the major retailers, brands and manufacturers to ensure that food, which cannot be sold but is still perfectly edible, does not go to waste. In the last year alone, Company Shop saved over 30,000 tonnes of food from going to waste.
Company Shop redistributes surplus goods through the staff shops it runs on manufacturing sites for employees and its standalone stores, which operate on a strict membership-only basis. Currently, you can only shop at Company Shop if you work in food manufacturing or the emergency services. Restricting the membership to this workforce gives retailers and brand owners the peace of mind that their brands will not be damaged by being sold in Company Shops, as the shoppers are educated as to how and why surpluses exist.
Its innovative and commercially self-supporting model needs no ongoing Government or third-sector support. In addition, the model provides a financial return to the suppliers of the surplus goods, rather than a cost, which would usually be incurred if they were disposed of through anaerobic digestion or landfill. It also does not compromise brand integrity. Currently, Company Shop delivers significant environmental and social benefits, providing good food to low income workers. To address this, Company Shop launched Community Shop.
Tell us what Community Shop involves.
Community Shop is a social enterprise launched by Company Shop which delivers significant environmental and social benefits by providing good food to low-income workers. The first Community Shop store was launched in Goldthorpe, Yorkshire, in December 2013. The area was chosen because of the high levels of deprivation, and was somewhere where surpluses could be matched by the industry with the people who needed it the most.
How does membership work?
The first Community Shop has the capacity for 500 members. To be eligible, a person must live within a certain postcode area near the store and be in receipt of council tax benefits. A person has membership for six months, and at the end of the six months, their circumstances are reviewed.
What makes it unique?
Community Shop is not just about surplus food. As well as giving access to low-cost food, it helps members address the issues that are pushing them towards food poverty. To achieve this, Community Shop provides a wide range of support services through its charity partner, Forage, giving people a hand up, not a hand out. This takes place in the Community Hub.
What goes on in the Community Hub?
The Community Hub is located in-store, and members are encouraged to engage with the free programmes of professional support. The services include personal development programmes, debt management, budgeting advice, foundation skills training and cookery classes. This provides members with a route back to financial independence and towards mainstream retailers.
Are there any plans to open more Community Shops?
There is a plan to open a network of Community Shops across the country and the team. We hope to launch our London pilot store in the very near future.
Source: Perishable News
