The Duchess of Edinburgh visits Community Shop in Lambeth

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The Duchess of Edinburgh has visited Community Shop, the UK’s first social supermarket, at their Lambeth store.

The Duchess of Edinburgh at Community Shop

During her visit to their Lambeth store, The Duchess saw Community Shop’s transformative work tackling the root cause of food insecurity by providing members with a hand up, not a hand-out.

The Duchess of Edinburgh at Community Shop

Community Shop operates 13 stores nationwide supporting areas of social inequality in the UK. Through its unique model, the social enterprise sells surplus products donated by food industry partners at a deeply discounted price, ensuring that products don’t needlessly go to waste, whilst simultaneously providing a sustainable support model for thousands of families each year.

During her time at the store, The Duchess participated in community activities, helping to serve the store’s “Feast Day”, and toured the site whilst speaking to the team.

The Duchess of Edinburgh at Community Shop

Her Royal Highness was shown three interconnected spaces of the site: Community Store, Community Hub, and Community Kitchen. Community Stores provide members with a much-needed access to deeply discounted food and essentials, including fruit, vegetables and bread for only 20p. 

The profits from Community Store are reinvested into the Community Hub, which delivers holistic support programmes to empower individuals to develop their own capabilities and deliver a positive future for themselves. 

The Duchess of Edinburgh at Community Shop

The Community Kitchen is a café that allows people to connect with others and learn through food, as well as providing home-cooked meals for the community with kids eating free every day. People join on a membership basis and is open to those on means-tested benefits and who live in the local area.

Community Shop

Since its inception in 2013, Community Shop has supported over 72,000 families with its sustainable model, that aims to improve peoples’ circumstances for the long-term. Within the interconnected spaces, Community Store has saved members over £50 million on shopping, whilst the Community Hubs have delivered more than 200,000 development programmes and Community Kitchens have fed over 880,000 children for free. 

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