The Serendipity Café in Putney has been supporting its local community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by providing free meals to over 80 people a day thanks to donations from Tesco’s Clapham Superstore.
The café, based at the Community Church on Werter Road, Putney, receives food parcels containing a variety of products provided through Tesco’s Community Food Connection scheme, which is run in partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare.
Run by a team of volunteers, The Serendipity Café offers three-course meals to people in need of a little help. The café also supplies food parcels containing fruit, vegetables, snacks and drinks.
Nic Murphy at The Serendipity Café 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 Serendipity Café has been providing much-needed hot meals to people who need support in the community, and the donations from Tesco and FareShare have made it all possible.
“We’re extremely grateful for all of the donations we’ve received and we plan to continue to support people in the community in the future”.
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 Serendipity Café 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.”
