Happiness Fund Awards £2500 to Dover Big Local
Community hub Dover Big Local has big plans. And thanks to a £2500 Happiness Fund grant, it can now start putting those plans into motion.
The charity is part of the Big Local network and offers services and support for disadvantaged people in the underprivileged town of Dover in Kent.
The project was established two years ago and provides an invaluable support network for struggling households and individuals in the heart of the town. In addition to being a central point where people can access help and advice on a range of issues, including employment, training and benefits, it also hosts social groups and clubs.
A membership food bank scheme that supports local people
One of its flagship projects is The Pantry, which is a membership food bank scheme in which members pay £5 and receive £25 of food. There are 360 members whose households rely on this vital service.
And as community worker Linda Aldred explained, The Pantry is set to get bigger.
“We’ve just acquired an allotment where our volunteers can grow food for The Pantry to supplement donations through the Fair Share scheme, as it’s hard to get all the food we need. The allotment will also be good for mental and physical health and will help people develop skills that can help them get back into work,” she said.
The Pantry also helps its members by hosting cooking demonstrations using the foods available to them. As Linda explained, often, the service will find itself with a significant amount of a specific product that members are unsure how to prepare.
“So we come up with ideas and recipes,” she said.
Enabling people to do things for themselves
In order to expand the much-needed service, Dover Big Local has been eager to train volunteers but has not had the funds to do so. That will now change thanks to the Happiness Fund grant. Volunteers will be put through food safety training to allow them to take groups of their own.
“It is about enabling people to do things for themselves by skilling them up and giving them confidence,” explained Linda. “The more we skill up the volunteers and members, the better it is. This money is so valuable because it puts us on the next step towards getting people trained.”
With the charity seeing more and more people looking for help because of the cost-of-living crisis, we hope the grant will have a positive impact.
