Food Friend


The Wilmslow Parish Food Friend scheme will close over the Summer of 2025.

As the needs of our community have changed, so too has the thinking around how best to meet those needs. In recent years, we've come to realise that providing food alone—though essential—is not enough. It is necessary to provide a broader range of support services, and signposting into other schemes and projects. With this in mind, we believe it’s time to change the way that the very real needs which we see in Wilmslow are served.

Hope Central, a local church-backed project, is already offering this kind of holistic support in addition to food provision and they have been operating in our area for many years. So, we are confident that through Hope Central those we serve will find not just help with food poverty but the kind of support and empowerment that might make a real difference in the longer term.

We are proud of the part we've played and anticipating the good work that lies ahead - determined that we will take our place alongside Hope Central and play a part in supporting their work. We hope that we will be able to provide a place for them to operate in the centre of Wilmslow, and will join them in volunteering roles and offer them practical and financial support.  We will now ensure that the people who have used Food Friend will be referred to Hope Central.  The collection points and our stocks will be used to run Food Friend unchanged for a transition period, and any surplus will then be donated to Hope Central.

Food Friend has served vulnerable people in Wilmslow for well over a decade and we know that it has been a huge blessing to witness God’s love in action through the countless shopping bags handed over, conversations had, and lives touched. We are deeply grateful to Flo and every volunteer who has given of their time, energy and love to serve. We are grateful too for all those individuals and organisations who have supported the project practically and financially.