Causeway Coast and Glens Council approves £59k spend for social supermarkets

Council has agreed funding for social supermarkets in the Borough. Credit Pixabay

Additional funding has been approved for social supermarkets in the Causeway Coast and Glens area.

At a meeting of the council’s Leisure and Development Committee on Tuesday, September 18, councillors approved the spend of £59,073 from Department for Communities (DfC) Social Supermarket Support Fund for 2023-24.

A total of £47,073 from the DfC fund will be given to the two established social supermarkets in the area (£15,452 to Vineyard Compassion and £31,621 to Limavady Community Development Initiative).

In addition, the council has invited expressions of interest from organisations that might be interested in exploring and setting up a social supermarket model to cover areas where there currently are gaps.

An amount of £12,000 will be allocated from the DfC funding for capacity building and seeding support. This was proposed by Coleraine UUP Councillor John Wisener and seconded by Causeway TUV Councillor Allister Kyle.

Social supermarkets provide members, who are struggling financially and meet certain criteria, with the opportunity to shop in a reduced cost food shop for a set period of time (usually three to six months).

According to a report submitted to the committee, the aim of the social supermarket model is “to offer a longer term and sustainable response to food insecurity by seeking to help address the root causes of poverty rather than the short term crisis food provision that foodbanks provide”.

Looking ahead, when an approach has been agreed with the DfC for the next financial year (2024-25), the DfC will stop funding to the pilot at Vineyard Compassion and provide the full allocation for social supermarkets in Causeway Coast and Glens to Council to fund a service directly. This is expected to be in the region of £115,000-£120,000 in 2024-25.

The report adds: “Planning ahead for transfer of DfC funding in full for 2024-25, it is proposed that council seeks to engage a consortium capable of collectively providing social supermarket coverage across Causeway Coast and Glens in order to promote collaboration, reduce gaps in and avoid duplication of provision.

“This could include the two current providers and any other organisation/s that come forward as a result of the call for expressions of interest for coverage in the gap areas.”