Treverbyn Community Trust

Mobile Community Larder

The Community Larders provide food bags that can contain donated staple ambient foods such as rice, pasta and tinned foods, in addition to surplus food unsold by local supermarkets, which would otherwise go to waste. Between November 2020 and January 2021 alone, volunteers collected 6.1 tonnes of surplus food from local supermarkets for redistribution to local people. 

The Mobile Community Larder was started in January 2021 and uses a van to take food directly to the people who most need it, but who can’t travel out of their village, either because of mobility issues, lack of transport or simply the prohibitive cost of travel. Currently, some 150 families access their weekly food bag – as well as advice and signposting to other sources of help such as Citizens Advice Bureau, Community Energy Plus and Pluss – via the Mobile Community Larder.  

Currently, some 150 families access their weekly food bag – as well as advice and signposting to other sources of help.

The Mobile Community Larder van also enables pallets of donated food to be collected from FareShare in Bodmin and Bristol, and surplus supermarket food which would otherwise go to landfill to be collected from more supermarkets across a wider area. 

Eden Geothermal Community Fund is covering the running costs of the Mobile Community Larder for a year. We’re really proud to be able to support this initiative, which one member of our award panel rightly described as “an absolute humdinger of a project”. 

What our Mobile Community Larder means to Local People 

We have received feedback from some of the people who have accessed food via our Community Larders and Mobile Community Larder. Here are a few examples of what our Mobile Community Larder means to local people: 

“Your food parcels and community larder are great, they help ease the worry and financial strain of choosing to pay a bill or eat properly. You are all so non judgemental and make it really easy to discuss problems, also put me in touch with advisors. Thank you all.” 

“I would like to say a massive thankyou for the support that treverbyn community have given my family during the pandemic. The food boxes have been a blessing, as a family of two boys and myself being furloghed and only my husband working it’s meant that we have been able to not go over our budget. We have found its given us plenty of food to create meals for breakfast lunch dinner and desert and has been so much appreciated. As like so many people we did not think we would be in the situation we couldn’t afford basics food but it’s hit a lot of people and its been such a difficult time so thank you very much for your help.” 

“Me and my boys have got full stomachs this week and that is all down to you all at the Hall. The food parcels are invaluable.”