A GROUP of kind-hearted volunteers are helping to feed struggling Teesside families.
Ragworth Community Grocery, in Stockton, is a joint venture between the Tees Valley Community Church and the Message Trust – helping disadvantaged people in need.
The volunteer-led facility only opened in 2021 but has already helped hundreds of families with food supplies, support and career advice.
Andy Malbon, manager at the facility, explained how the community venture formed. He said: “For me, I love the idea of helping people anyway I can, so we wanted to try to build community, togetherness and sense of belonging for people - and at the same time provide them with food.
“It felt like a perfect fit to bring the community grocery to Ragworth.”
The grocery was formed off the back of seeing people suffer during the coronavirus pandemic – but volunteers had never anticipated hundreds of people would soon visit every day.
“A year ago, we never knew we’d be facing such a stark cost of living crisis but we’re perfectly positioned to help people through that,” Mr Malbon said.
“When we first set up last year it was a little bit quiet but it gave us a chance to build a solid team here and from September-October it’s just got busier and busier.
“We’re up a third, if not doubling, what we were doing in the Summer. We’re averaging around 90 people a day.”
The grocery acts as a “bridge between a food bank and a supermarket”, with food sourced from surplus supermarket produce and local donation drives.
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Two words that summarise the whole experience for Andy are dignity and choice, which they hope to provide to anyone in need.
Yet running the grocery also comes with its downfalls. Costs are high and food supplies are strictly managed.
Mr Malbon added: “It’s not a free for all and it can’t be that way because there’s only a certain amount of food to go around and we’re seeing more and more people.
“We are running at a loss, there’s no way we couldn’t, we’re run by a team of volunteers. It’s a struggle, I’m not going to lie. We have times where we wonder where we’re going to get a food source from but we’re still here a year on.”
Volunteers have suffered multiple minor set backs in their first year after thieves broke into their unit, stole items and damaged property – but the team stress they’re keen to put the incidents behind them.
“The vast majority of people who use this place and we come across are brilliant,” Mr Malbon said. “What’s frustrating is that I’ve had to dip into the budget to pay for the window.
“Whereas if they knocked on the door and said ‘give us a bag of food’ I would have.
“An awful lot of people couldn’t do a shop because of it and that was heart-breaking. It’s disappointing and I wish they wouldn’t do it but hopefully we can move on from it.
“A lot of the people we come across, life hasn’t dealt them a great hand and we want to provide a solution.”
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