Community food cupboard topped up by housebuilder

A food poverty group who provides emergency food parcels to the local community has been given a boost by Castle Green Homes.

Rossett Community Cupboard was set up in 2023 to try to reduce good food going to landfill.

It’s the brainchild of Wrexham couple Paul and Claire Marshall, who wanted to combat food waste and their cupboard has quickly become an essential lifeline for hundreds of families.

They successfully applied to Castle Green’s Mission Green fund to help cover Rossett Community Cupboard’s running costs.

Paul said: “When we started the community cupboard, we stored the items in a small shed and now, because of the demand, we operate from a purpose-built office just off Waverly Crescent. We see between 350-400 families come each week so we’re still very much helping the needs of the local community. Castle Green’s donation will help go towards fuelling our vans that collect the donations and help with bills to keep our office open.”

Most of the food is donated from supermarkets and collected by the team.

Paul added: “We believe that no one should go hungry. We believe we can get to those that really need our help and our hopes for the next few years is to just continue building on the service we provide. We have a zero-waste policy, ensuring that any food we cannot distribute is given to local farmers, preventing it from going to waste.”

Castle Green Homes sales director Sian Pitt said: “The cost-of-living crisis unfortunately means that families need help to ensure they can still put food on the table. Rossett Community Cupboard is a wonderful asset for the local community to use as and when they need to. Paul, Claire and the team are doing great work that will be appreciated by many.”

The Mission Green funding is in addition to the £900,000 of community investment agreed during the planning process to be distributed via the local authority.