Dorset food map app offers help to people in food need

Head chef, Kevin Harrowven, and project manager, Erika Sloper, sell discounted food at Waste Not Want Not

A food map app has been helping people in Dorset who are struggling financially to access cheap and free food.

The access to food map shows every food bank, community hub and lunch group in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

There are 58 charity projects registered on the app, which has had more than 23,000 hits since its launch.

Hundreds of community support service workers have also been trained to help people in food need to use the app.

It was launched by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) in August 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in partnership with Public Health Dorset and the Community & Voluntary Sector to improve food access.

"No-one can be ashamed"

"While food banks support people with emergency food, those providing long-term support, such as social supermarkets and community stores, are being signposted thanks to the app," said Daisy Carr, community food coordinator at the council.

Waste Not Want Not is a Poole-based community coffee shop and social supermarket, selling discounted food to people on a lower income.

Project manager, Erika Sloper, said it helps nearly 600 families in the area.

One customer told the BBC she shopped there regularly for her family: "What I would pay for a bag of apples, I can get a whole bowl of fruit."

She added: "I used to feel like I couldn't come in here but I think, with the cost of living, no-one can be ashamed or shy of anything now, you've just got to go and do what you've got to do to survive."