Hattersley Grows Grocery Partnership

Revd Sam Durdant-Hollamby has opened the church’s doors to offer affordable food to local residents. In collaboration with the Message Trust and Tameside Borough Council, St Barnabas introduced a community grocery shop this week to assist with the increasing cost of living.

Sam explains: “Hattersley is a food desert. People without cars are more than a mile away from food so this bridges the gap between a food bank and a supermarket and says here is a close, local, affordable place, where you can come, get your food, be welcomed and have a cup of tea as well.

“This will make a huge difference to the local community in terms of access to food and just being able to live day by day.”

The project has been supported by the Manchester-based Christian charity, Message Trust, which provides heavily discounted food and other daily essentials to support struggling families. To shop at the store people pay £1 annual membership. The food comes from surplus supplies and wholesale, and is often close to or slightly past the best before date but is in perfectly good enough to eat.

Since opening the first Community Grocery in Sharston in 2020, the charity has now partnered with 40 churches across the UK.

Message Trust chief executive, Andy Hawthorne OBE, says it’s fantastic to see the difference the community groceries make to people’s lives.

“In the last six years and we have almost a hundred thousand members all over the nation, but Hattersley is literally one of my favourites. St Barnabas is a great church and the partnership is going to result in a transformation in this community.”

Manager of the new store, Molly Dowdall, knows from experience what it is like to be unable to afford the basics. Before joining the congregation at St Barnabas, she experienced homelessness and would often go without food because she had no money.

“There’s been times when I had absolutely no money and I’d be buying nappies with 1p and 2p coins and people at the till would be laughing at me saying ‘good luck with that’.

“The shop will be amazing. It’s going to be life changing for people. People who have to pick between heating and food will now be able to have both.”

Hattersley Community Grocery is located next to St Barnabas Church and opens from 9.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday.