We need your help!

We are fundraising toward the costs of converting a disused stage into a long term home for East Elmbridge food bank – and so much more – in our local community Hub.

What’s the vision?

Our dream for the community hub is not just to create a home for the food bank.

We want to create a suite of 3 counselling rooms, renovate and upgrade the Kitchen and cafe area and convert and remodel some of the other current rooms to make them a better fit for modern community use.

We want to run groups that support people’s mental health including a community gardening project that will look after the grounds and courtyard space among other things and the counselling rooms will provide vital private space to work with people in financial and mental health crises.

The work will also give us the ability to welcome other local services into the building and we’re in conversations with Citizen’s Advice, NHS social prescribing and the Job Centre to name a few.

We want to provide comprehensive support to those living in West Molesey and a model of support that can be replicated across East Elmbridge with our food bank partners.

Our immediate need

The first step of this journey is to renovate the disused stage area to create a room that can be used as the food bank warehouse.

The new room will operate in conjunction with 2 storage containers placed in the rear of the car park area to replace the warehousing space we have lost at the SCC old Hurst Park School site.

We’re undertaking this work now and are seeking to raise funds to cover the costs.

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The background

We agreed a two year lease on a disused school site with Surrey County Council in late 2021 but unfortunately were served with a break notice at the start of January 2022 as SCC made the decision to put the bring the site into use as a school again for the coming 22/23 school year.

We looked at all our options and unfortunately were not able to secure any free or low cost rental solutions in a viable location.

This left us with Commercial rental costs or an alternative – making renovations to the St Peter’s West Molesey Community and Youth Hub – to provide a home.

Whilst the renovations are expensive, when factoring in the length of our lease at the Hub, they are cheaper than commercial rental in the area and provide a much better solution as our warehousing and distribution centres in Molesey will be in one location.

Want to know more?

We would love to chat with you about our vision for the centre and answer any questions you may have about the building works and our hopes for the future.

Please don’t hesitate to give us a call or drop us an email!