Did you know the Need Project operates throughout Central Bedfordshire and parts of Hertfordshire?

Our main headquarters is in Stotfold on the High Street. But we have hubs throughout Central Bedfordshire. Out of this small shop front, we help Central Bedfordshire to the value of over £500,000 a year (roughly 600-700 parcels a month). This includes our volunteer labour of 57 people and 291 hours a week! We also have two vans on the road continuously and use over £750 per month.

We give away on average food to the value of 45,000 to 50,000 per month. We work totally via referrals for our food parcels from recognised agencies, which we deliver once our Centre closes. We work with Central Bedfordshire Council, North Herts Council, Housing Associations, Schools, Doctors, Probation Services, Homeless Charities, Pathway to Recovery and Hospitals. We also work closely with Feed Up Warm Up.

We give away best before food, averaging over £3,300 per month. We give away the best before in Stotfold on Mondays (not including bank holidays), Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 11am and 12.30pm. On Wednesday we are in Shefford at the Methodist Church from 9 to 11am. We are also in Sandy on a Tuesday from 11am to 12.30pm.

We never imagined when we started that we would be this busy and it is getting busier each month!

Due to how busy we are and ongoing works, we feel we need to have a permanent home. We would like to stay local to Stotfold. We have found a place that we could run our project from, which could also be a great community space for the town of Stotfold.

Our main ministry is and always will be our food parcels, but our future depends on us having a building to work from, so we have started a separate building fund. We need an additional £500,000, which includes the purchase and redevelopment of the property. This separate project will not affect our commitment and passion to feed our hungry neighbour.

If you have any first-hand experience of fundraising on this scale, or know anyone who does, we would appreciate a conversation to give us some advice. Please call Gordon on 07496 833940 If you can help.

If you would like to visit our centre in Stotfold, please call Gordon on the number above.

If you would like to donate towards this fund, please go to our donation page on our website (www.theneedproject.org/donate) and give your donation the reference ‘Building Fund’.

Thank you.