Food for thought
Founder of SHARE Wokingham, Claire Revie, tells Absolutely why the food charity is proving to be a lifeline for Berkshire locals
BY Natalie Li
Norreys Church in Wokingham
The doors of Norreys Church in Wokingham fling open every Friday for two hours and a cohort of enthusiastic volunteers warmly welcome more than 100 locals who gratefully delve into an array of free fresh food.
A £1 entry fee is requested to help maintain the church building’s electricity and lighting costs, but no one is turned away if they can’t afford this. For many who visit the church, this food parcel is a lifeline as they face the squeeze of the cost of living crisis. It’s not long before supplies of food are snapped up.
A chemotherapy patient enters seeking fresh fruits recommended to her, but simply can’t afford the supermarket prices. Later, a family forced to become vegetarian due to the rising costs of meat are hoping to find something to feed their household.
While food inflation is expected to level off in 2023, food prices remain high, and communities continue to struggle to afford healthy essentials. Demand is increasing, says Claire Revie, founder of SHARE Wokingham.
“You wouldn’t expect that a county like Berkshire – areas like Sunningdale or Ascot – would need this service, but the pandemic was a real leveller. People are desperate for extra help,” she states. “The demographic is like no other, we see older people who are asset rich, cash poor to struggling families and environmentalists who want to salvage food from being wasted. In the UK we throw away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste each year despite 8.4 million people being in poverty, and one in six meals are wasted in hospitality and catering.”
When Was SHARE Founded?
SHARE Wokingham was founded by Claire during Covid-19 in 2020 to help those struggling foodwise. “In 2019 I was part of the team that ran a food project called the ‘Grub Club’, which offered Wokingham locals meals twice a week, activities, and access to a food pantry. I was a trustee of another charity, and we had strong links with Brakes, a food wholesaler based in Reading,” explains the Wokingham resident who has a background in textiles and fashion design. “Brakes approached us at the beginning of the pandemic offering us food that would otherwise go to waste and so it began.”
Three years on the need for this food service is increasing. Today, SHARE Wokingham is a registered charity operating across 15 sites in Berkshire collecting end of day and surplus food stocks from local sources and sharing this with those in need.
The Success
More than 2,000 people and 600 households receive help each week from these fresh food and pantry sites which can be found in places like Bracknell, Shinfield, Woodley, Sunningdale, Finchampstead, Crowthorne, Winnersh, and Ascot. Each day 150 volunteers sort, collect, and redistribute food donated by Brakes and supermarkets including Morrisons, Waitrose, Lidl, ALDI, and M&S. Other suppliers include Gail’s, Cook, Squires, Greggs, Pret A Manger, and local allotments.
Norreys Church acts as a distribution hub and any food deemed inadequate for human consumption is donated as animal feed to local farms, such as Poppies Farm in Hurst. “We don’t call ourselves a food bank, it was important to us that we remove the stigma. A lot of people don’t realise that food banks under the Trussell Trust need a referral so you can’t just rock up and request food. I didn’t want to create barriers,” says Claire, who scooped a civic award in 2022 from Wokingham Town Council, recognising the work of the charity.
“I’m a Christian so the way I see it is that Jesus didn’t ask the 5,000 why they didn’t bring their lunch, he just fed them! It means you get people accessing support who don’t have to justify why they need it. From a Christian perspective we are helping the community and the environment. It has been a huge journey of faith for me as some weeks I’ve worried about whether we’d have enough food.
“The charity was a big step, and I didn’t plan any of this. There are plenty of challenges, rules, and regulations when you seek and maintain charity status,” she adds. “We are finding our feet, but when you see the need and the impact it has on the community you can’t walk away from that. Sadly, the need is increasing.”
Working With The NHS
The food charity has crucial links with the local NHS team who provide blood pressure checks and advice to visitors. “Food is the first hook, but there are far more issues to address in our community including loneliness and debt. We want to build on our offering to provide more than food.”
Claire is confident that this charity model can be replicated in other parts of the country to not only serve the community, but the volunteers. “We’ve built a little family,” smiles Claire who manages the voluntary team with the help of hub leads. “We have volunteers who have fallen on hard times, are suffering with anxiety and some looking to become job ready. SHARE has given them a purpose, a sense of belonging and confidence. I could never have imagined we’d have five sites, never mind 15. We thought we’d be closed after five months. I don’t know where it will all lead. Never say never!
“This is my unofficial job, and it gives me huge joy, it’s the greatest privilege to be part of this,” Claire adds. “It doesn’t feel like work, every day we smile, and we laugh, you’ll hear some heart wrenching stories, but we’ve created a safe space for support, with no questions asked. I find it touching how much you can help by listening and chatting. My greatest reward is seeing the joy that people find in our service and the way our voluntary team support each other. I just want to help make a difference.”
