Purpose

As part of its 2023 budget, and in advance of the end of the Household Support Fund, the Council established a reserve of £0.350m to support in the development of a sustainable food offer.

In December 2025 and in line with the spirit of the allocation, the Executive Director of Resources in consultation with the Resources Cabinet Member agreed that this reserve be utilised to provide physical items to support the Council’s community food partners as they develop their sustainable offer.  This could include the purchase of fridges/freezers to enable them to receive/store/distribute additional items (this will support the new FareShare offer currently being piloted with community partners), and storage for items (including larger storage options to allow partners to receive additional/bulky items from Fareshare).  Both will enable organisations to access and distribute additional items to their communities at a reduced cost.

Council officers have subsequently been engaging with community partners to identify investment opportunities. This includes Stockbridge Village Food Hub who operate a food club in the centre of Stockbridge Village. As part of this support, the food hub received a fridge and a freezer in April 2026 to allow the hub to receive chilled and frozen food items from Fareshare.  This activity has been well received by the hub and the community and demand for chilled items has continued to increase.  To meet this demand Stockbridge Food Hub increased the volume of food they receive from Fareshare and as such have requested an additional fridge to store the chilled items. Provision of items from Fareshare offers much better value to the Council.

As per the Council’s procurement guidance, this item will be purchased directly from Amazon or via Stearn Electrical.

Following engagement, it is proposed that the item listed at Appendix A be purchased at an estimated cost of £0.001m. More details of the benefits of this investment are also provided in Appendix A.

An Equality Impact Assessment is provided at Appendix B

Decision

The Executive Director Resources & Partnerships in consultation with the Cabinet Member (Resources) agree that an allocation of £0.001m is made from the Council’s Sustainable Food Budget to procure an additional item of kitchen equipment for Stockbridge Village Food Hub to enable them to provide an extended offer in their communities.

Alternative options considered

If support was not made available to the organisations named in this report, this would limit the amount of food they were able to receive from Fareshare which would in turn restrict the amount of food available to the community in Stockbridge.