Community shop to help families in financial hardship opens in Weymouth

The Nest is based at The Waverley Community Hub.

Author: George Sharpe Published 25th Nov 2020

A new community food shop's opened in Weymouth to help those struggling to make ends meet.

The Nest at The Waverly Community Hub on Abbotsbury Road offers affordable, healthy food to those on a limited income.

It's being run by the same group of volunteers who organised a free pop-up meal bank alongside Weymouth Town Council over half term.

The shop is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10am to 2pm, and hands out parcels of food as well as bread and fruit.

Weymouth Town Councillor Alex Fuhrmann says anyone can apply.

"They've had loads of customers that are just regular working people that are on minimum wage and it could be somebody who's defaulted on a mortgage about to or struggling with a tenancy agreement that they're still locked into but through perhaps COVID or other circumstances they've not been able to pay it.

"So it's a really good project in terms of just bridging that gap between people who need the food and actually getting getting the food to them."

Alex thinks there are a lot of people who aren't getting the support they need.

He said:

"To be honest I think there's some stigma attached to food banks and community type stores for when we were doing the free school meals several emails I received were from friends of people who didn't want to attend and it was the friend that would come in and pick up the stuff and then deliver it to them."

Alex is encouraging people to find out whether or not they might be able to get support by visiting the Nest's facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/TheNestWeymouth