GODALMING & VILLAGES COMMUNITY STORE

Godalming Town Council collaborated with the Farncombe & Godalming Coronavirus Assistance Group and the St Mark’s Food Bank to open the Godalming & Villages Community Store to support our community.  The Community Store is a volunteer-led service.

If you’ve become unemployed, furloughed or are waiting for Universal Credit this is likely to be a worrying time for you.  You may never have thought you would need a food bank or similar and for some this will be difficult to come to terms with.  The Community Store is about the community supporting its friends and neighbours during these unprecedented and difficult times.

The Community Store can assist with free basic food, personal hygiene, sanitary and domestic cleaning items.  The Community Fridge within the Store can also offer fresh produce as well as some frozen produce too.

IMPORTANT CHANGES

On Monday, 16 August the Store will be moving from its current location, the Wyatt Room within the Wilfrid Noyce Centre to the Oglethorpe Hall.  This is at the back of the Wilfrid Noyce Centre and has its own bespoke entrance directly from the car park near the disabled parking bays.

The Store will still offer you the same ‘shop without a till’ service, however, due to the layout logistics not all available products will be on display, but please ask the volunteer whether a particular product you are looking for is available.

As August will see the Store become entirely volunteer led, the opening hours effective from 16 August will be amended to reflect this change as follows:

Over the next two weeks, if you currently regularly visit the Store, we will confirm your time slot and kindly ask you to arrive promptly.  If you are unable to make your timeslot or need to change your time please let us know as soon as possible using our new contact details below.  Any previous contact details are now obsolete.

How to Visit the Community Store

If you, or someone you know, is in need of support please either call the Community Store volunteers on 07493 435715 (Monday-Friday excluding Bank Holidays) or by email [email protected]

When you contact us you will be given a time slot to visit the store, this is to protect both yourself and the volunteers working at the Community Store.  Please mention at the time of your call/email if you are shielding or self-isolating.

If you are unable to pick up from the Store, please call St Mark’s Food Bank on 01483 418741 Monday-Wednesday 10.00am-2.00pm/Thursday 11.00am-1.30pm.

Please Can You Donate Any of These Items?

All in date, unopened tinned and packaged food items and domestic cleaning products are very much appreciated. With some items more in need than others, donations of the items listed below are particularly welcome:

Donations needed (last updated – 27 October 2021):

Baby Wipes
Bleach
Cleaning Sprays
Dried Fruit
Fruit Juice
Kitchen Roll
Multipack Crisps
Non Bio Laundry Detergent
Scourers
Sweet Treats for Lunch Boxes
UHT Whole and Semi Skimmed Milk

Due to the very generous donations from harvest festival we currently have ample stock of the following:

Baked Beans
Chopped Tomatoes
Pasta
Tea
Tinned Tomato Soup

Thank you for your support for the Community Store, working with St Marks Food Bank we hope between us we are able to help as many people as possible in our community who find themselves in need of support.

A huge thank you to those who have already donated and to those kind  people who regularly donate.

How to Donate to the Community Store

The Store takes in donations and makes them available free of charge to others.

If you would like to support the Community Store, this can be done by taking donated goods directly to the Wilfrid Noyce Centre during the Store’s opening times (Monday-Thursday 10.00am – 12.30pm and Friday 10.00am – 2.00pm).

A huge thank you to the following schools, who have kindly offered to host boxes for dropping off donations for The Godalming & Villages Community Store and The St Marks’ Food Bank:

Broadwater Secondary school
Busbridge Infant School
Busbridge Junior School
Chandler School, Milford
Farncombe Infants School
Little Rays Pre-School, Wey Court, Godalming
Loseley Fields Primary School
Milford Infants School
Moss Lane Infant School
Puttenham Infant School
The Wharf Nursery School

Map Showing Donation Point Locations

Thank you to those kind people who regularly donate.

If you wish to make a monetary donation to the Community Store please use our JustGiving page, which will allow us to claim Gift Aid for eligible donations. Alternatively, you can contact the Finance Officer at Godalming Town Council on [email protected] who can provide you with our bank details.  Thank you.

Grateful thanks to the following organisations who have very kindly donated financially to the Community Store:

Godalming Rotary Club
Gorringes
Inner Wheel of Godalming
Milford Village Fete
St Nicholas, Compton
The Caudle Memorial Trust
The Round Table

Thanks also go to all the private individuals who have and continue to donate to the Community Store – the generosity of the whole community has been outstanding.  Thank you!

Godalming Gardeners, We Need Your Help!

If you are a Godalming Gardener who may have grown a surplus of produce i.e. too many tomatoes, lots of lettuces, gallons of green beans, pots of peas and potatoes and an abundance of apples, we would love you to donate your surpluses to the Community Store – donating will help cut down on waste and provide additional fresh produce options for those in need of support.