A community outreach project in Clapham has been supporting its local community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by providing food to up to 180 people each day thanks to local Tesco stores.
The Ace of Clubs receives food parcels containing a variety of food products provided through Tesco’s Community Food Connection scheme, which is run in partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare.
Run by a small team and supported by volunteers, the Ace of Clubs collects, utilises and distributes food from Tesco stores in the area to provide supplies for local people who need a bit of extra help and reduce surplus food waste.
Set up originally in 1995 by the Religious congregation of the Redemptorists, Ace of Clubs’ centre on St Alphonsus Road not only distributes food parcels, it also assists people with a wide range of services, including accommodation, welfare, rehab, training and healthcare.
Martin Reyes, Manager of Centre Operations and Caseworking, said: “We’ve all been through extremely difficult times over the last year which has shown how important it is to club together and help each other.
“The Ace of Clubs has been supporting the homeless and most marginalised of our local community for over 25 years. We can see anywhere up to 180 people turn to us for support, each day.
“We rely heavily on the support of our food partners, including Tesco. Without the generous support that we receive from supermarkets such as Tesco, we would struggle to meet the growing demand for our services”.
Tesco Community Food Connection links stores to local charities and community groups to ensure that no good food goes to waste.
Claire De Silva, Head of Communities at Tesco, said: “We know that the Community Food Connection scheme is making a real difference to groups like The Ace of Clubs by providing a little bit of extra help in the shape of surplus food from our stores.
“This is the biggest supermarket food redistribution scheme in the UK, and we know there are more groups that could receive food for the work they carry out, so I would encourage any group that thinks it could benefit to contact FareShare, so we can help even more good causes.”
Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive at FareShare, said: “We are incredibly thankful to Tesco for its continued support of FareShare. We work with a number of charities and community groups providing essential support to their local communities, and receiving a steady stream of food helps them to feed those who need it most.”
