Central England Co-op and Derby City Council launch ground-breaking scheme to get food and essentials to vulnerable people

Posted by rob smyth | Published: 16/04/2020

Central England Co-op has teamed up with Derby City Council to launch a ground-breaking project aimed at getting vital food and essentials to vulnerable members of the local community.

The retailer will link up with council workers to create a community hub at its Littleover Food Store, in Burton Road.

Derby City Council will then identify vulnerable community members, gather orders and pass them onto the store. Central England Co-op colleagues will then create a package and take payment from the customer over the phone before the local authority delivers the goods.

The launch of this project comes after the scheme was successfully trialled at the retailer’s Boley Park food store, in Lichfield, with partner Lichfield District Council and its Wildwood food store, in Stafford with partner Stafford Borough Council.

The rollout of the project with Derby City Council is part of plan to create similar projects based out of Central England Co-op community hub stores across the 16 counties it trades in and even farther afield on a national scale.

Debbie Robinson, Chief Executive of Central England Co-op, said: “Co-operation is key to our communities coming together during this uncertain time and this is why we have linked up with Derby City Council to launch this pioneering scheme during this uncertain time.

“This unique project will see the council contact vulnerable people in the community and work with us to deliver food and essentials to them.

“This is a great example of communities and organisations coming together at a time of need and creating a solution that will make a difference.

“Our trials in Lichfield and Stafford have been and continue to be a great success. This is why we have now been able to launch in Derby with our great partner Derby City Council to help more people in the local area.

“We have further plans in place to rapidly roll out this out across other locations to make sure we support as many people as we can in the coming weeks.”

Councillor Roy Webb, Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Housing, said: “During the coronavirus pandemic we are all faced with obstacles and are having to live in a very different way to what we are used to. Unfortunately, for some people in the city, these difficulties extend to accessing vital resources such as food.

“We’re very glad to have organised a method of supporting those in need to ensure they have access to food and appreciate the coordination and enthusiasm of all partners and volunteers across Derby.”

To find out more, visit www.derby.gov.uk/coronavirus

Notes to editors

Picture caption: Central England Co-op and Derby City Council are working together to help those in need across the community via special care packages.

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral, travel and property investment.

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish. 

Our 7,900 colleagues serve Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

Phone - 01543 421390

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop