A busy Cheshire charity that’s seen a huge surge in demand at its popular discount food stores has just taken delivery of a donation of much-needed supplies from a new local self-storage business.

Having opened our new site in Winsford this summer alongside the takeover of a local storage business in Northwich and Runcorn, Lock Stock’s community work in the region has now begun at pace.

The company has a policy of supporting charities, community groups and sports clubs in the areas where it operates, which cover North and Mid Wales, Merseyside, Shropshire, Herefordshire and now Cheshire.

We’ve launched our community campaign in Winsford by handing over a consignment of food cupboard staples to Changing Lives Together, which has been in the town since 2000.

The charity operates its own discount store, The Very Green Grocery, in Winsford, and at The Old School House, in Northwich, and Lock Stock’s gift of canned and dried foods and sauces, including rice, pasta, cooking sauces, baked beans, custard and tinned fruit will find a place on the shelves of both stores.

The Very Green Grocery provides a choice of heavily discounted food, much of it donated and for £7, shoppers can walk away with a supply of goods worth as much as £40.

Changing Lives Together Head of Development Rachel Waterman said: “We have been operating in Winsford, Northwich and the surrounding area for 25 years and are currently expanding into Crewe.

“We offer a range of services, including our popular Very Green Grocery which caters for up to 450 customers a week at the Winsford Community Hub, in the High Street, and at The Old School House, on Manchester Road, in Northwich.

“The services we provide are a really big-scale operation, and we have over 70 full and part-time staff, while our Buddy and Befriending Service supports 380 people with a weekly phone call

“The goods Lock Stock have provided are ideal for us – we really need those store cupboard staples with a long life, but they tend not to be the things people donate.”

Richard Warner, Lock Stock Area Manager for Cheshire, said: “We now have four sites in Cheshire with about 800 storage units, and most of those are already full, and we do like to play our part in the communities where we operate.

“We’re delighted to be able to support Changing Lives Together, which is a very active charity doing a great job of helping people in so many different ways.”

In addition to its grocery shops, Changing Lives Together runs community hubs, finds new homes for pre-loved furniture and appliances, puts old bikes back on the road with its ReCycle scheme, operates community transport and has a buddy and befriending service for the lonely and isolated.

Its Head of Retail and Grocery, John O’Reilly, said: “We must save the likes of Morrisons thousands by taking food nearing its sell-by date off their hands, which they would otherwise have to send to landfill.

“We just took delivery of three pallets of thousands of pizzas, which would have gone to waste, and we’ve been able to distribute it, although what we could do with for donations like that is a big freezer.

“Lots of supermarket checkouts have baskets for donations, and people often put in boxes of biscuits or chocolate but what we really need are beans, soup and other staples.

“Some of our customers are people who are financially sound but don’t like waste, others just need to save money and then there are the people who are in real need of help but we always make a point of saying thank you to them because otherwise this food would go into landfill.”

For more on the work of Changing Lives Together, click here.