Dear Marybone Big Help Food Club Members and Volunteers

The Marybone Big Help Food Club has been operating for six months now, so I wanted to get in touch to let you know about some of the impact the project has made to date.

The idea for the Food Club came out of lockdown.  I’m one of the councillors for Liverpool City Centre and, with my colleague Councillor Christine Banks, we saw people socially isolated, struggling with the cost of living crisis and having to choose between eating and heating their homes.  We’ve got some of the highest childhood obesity rates in the city, with many children living in homes without their own gardens in an area with lots of takeaways and convenience stores where it isn’t always as easy as it should be to access good quality, healthy, affordable food.  As we collectively face the Climate Emergency, we need to do more to tackle food waste and surplus food getting sent to landfill. 

Marybone Big Help is a Food Club, not a Food Bank.  It’s based on principles of social solidarity and mutual help, not charity.  It’s about empowering people and using collective action for positive change in our communities.  

We’ve got 178 members signed up:

• 47% live in the Marybone community.
• 60% in the City Centre North ward.
• 94% in North Liverpool.
• 99% within the City of Liverpool boundaries.

But, our membership is open to everyone.  Nobody gets turned away.  Our furthest member – a friend of a local resident – travels all the way in from Prescot.

The impact of our Food Club has been phenomenal.  In the first six months we’ve been open:

• We’ve had 851 shoppers through our doors.
• 1,740 people have received food.  That’s made up of 1,324 adults and 416 children.
• We’ve had an average of 6 volunteers each week, each committing to at least 4 hours each week.
• This adds up to 480 volunteering hours.
• Our members have paid in a total of £3,890 and have taken home food worth £12,152.
• 4.5 tonnes of food waste has been avoided.
• For every £1 invested in the project, we estimate that it’s created £9.77 of social value.

We’ve got some activities planned over the summer holidays where we’ll be setting up some community cookery sessions.  We’ll get in touch with more details nearer the time.

We’re open every Monday between 1pm and 4pm at Marybone Youth and Community Centre, Addison Street, Liverpool, L3 2BE, but next week, due to the Bank Holiday, we’ll be open on Tuesday 9 May instead.  Anyone can join, so tell your friends and neighbours.

Finally, thanks to all our volunteers, Julie, Kenny, Billy, Kim, Christine, Irene, Graham and Wasim, to our partners, Big Help Project, Marybone Youth and Community Association, Your Housing Group and Holy Cross Catholic Primary School and to Lidl, Great Homer Street and Tesco, Great Crosshall Street for their support and food donations.

Regards

Councillor Nick Small
Labour & Co-operative Councillor for Central Ward

( 07986 445820

Follow me on Twitter @cllrnicksmall

Central Councillors’ Advice Surgeries (with Councillor Christine Banks)

1st Saturday of the month, Central Library, William Brown Street, L3 8EW, midday-1.00pm

4th Tuesday of the month, Marybone Youth and Community Centre, Addison Street, L3 2BE, 6.00pm-7.00pm

No appointment necessary