Charity takes on former Bradford Brewery site as a hub for its community projects

13 July 2020

Our Partner Inn Churches, a Bradford-based charity, has taken on the former Bradford Brewery as a city centre hub for its community projects, including their second social supermarket and expanding their delivery of Jamie’s Ministry of Food Programme. 

 With support from Fareshare, Feeding Britain, and Homeless Link, fit-out work has begun on site. The objective is to open in July as a community resource which provides a base for enterprises, affordable nutritious food for local residents, and support for people looking to return to work or acquire new skills. 

This new project will extend the work already running at the charity’s base on Caledonia Street with Jude’s urban kitchen and the Cookery School hosting Jamie’s Ministry of Food classes open to everyone.  Part of the premises will form a social supermarket, 22 Shaw House, with the Feeding Britain Network, A range of fresh, chilled, frozen, and ambient goods will be available to members at exceptionally low prices. Local residents will be referred for membership by In Communities, CAP and other authorised agencies, or customers can self-refer. Once signed up, members will be incentivised to join the Bradford Credit Union and, where needed, home deliveries will be offered. 

 The Social Supermarket will become part of the Feeding Britain network, building on Inn Churches’ existing work to distribute food to community groups across Bradford. It has been sending community mini-markets across the district for the past few years to enable people to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables at a price they can afford.  Other supermarkets in the Feeding Britain Network, known as Citizens Supermarkets include Birkenhead and Coventry have dramatically improved access to fresh nutritious and affordable food.

Juli Thompson, of Inn Churches, comments: “We have seen a massive demand for our services in the past three months distributing food across the district to support food banks and feeding projects. With support from Fareshare, Morrisons, Bradford Council and Feeding Bradford along with many others we have contributed towards around 386,000 meals.  However, what we want to do is to help families to support themselves, not be reliant on food parcels and handouts. We see this initiative offering a source of training and employment, as well as a route into food growing schemes.” We have an amazing range of partners across the district and would love to hear from others who would be interested in working with us to support their communities.

 Andrew Forsey, of Feeding Britain, adds: “We are privileged to work in partnership with Inn Churches and the Feeding Bradford network on innovative ways of improving people’s access to affordable, nutritious food. This new initiative aims to provide both immediate and longer-term forms of assistance which will put large sums of money back into people’s pockets.”

“FareShare Yorkshire is delighted to be supporting this incredible new project at Twenty-Two Shaw House. We have been working in partnership with Inn Churches for over 6 years to ensure that surplus food can be redistributed to groups and individuals and we are looking forward to continuing this work to help more people in Bradford.”  Gareth Batty, Fareshare Yorkshire

“We are really excited to be part of this new venture for Inn Churches in Bradford. Jamie’s Ministry of Food programme has been delivered in Bradford for the past 11 years, teaching thousands to cook healthy meals from scratch. It is fantastic that the new social supermarket will mean even more Bradford residents can benefit from the programme”. Rosanna Bluett, Food Education Programme Manager, Jamie Oliver Ltd.