Micah Liverpool opens new community shop
Micah Liverpool, a charity we established along with the Metropolitan Cathedral and St Luke in the City parish has opened a community market in the centre of Liverpool
The market, at St Michael in the City on Upper Pitt Street, will help ease the financial pressure of those living in poverty or on the breadline.
The community market will be open every Monday 11am – 2pm (except bank holidays). It works through being able to sell food that supermarkets think is surplus to requirements. This way the produce is cheaper than in regular shops giving more choice and flexibility. Markets like this have been shown to help prevent people having to turn to the emergency aid that Foodbanks offer.
The community market has been set up by Micah Liverpool, a charity which aims to achieve justice, fairness and well-being for people in Liverpool. The market will complement the work being carried out by Micah Liverpool through its emergency food aid Foodbank which operates from St Bride’s and St Vincent’s church buildings.
St Michael in the City is one of three churches that form the Team Parish of St Luke In The City, named after the original name of the Bombed Out Church. The church has space to offer this community market, is ideally located for customers and so was a logical choice to host this. Micah Liverpool plan to open a community café over time.
64% of those in the local Riverside ward are classed as unemployed, receiving sickness benefit, retired, students or homemakers. Many of these bring in less than the national average income and risk falling down the many spirals that lead to real hardship. The market is one way that we can stop that downward spiral.
Paul O’Brien, Executive Director Micah Liverpool said “The scandal of society is that so many people are driven into poverty because they don’t have affordable options to choose from. The community market offers people on low income a chance to manage their budgets and feed their families preventing them from hitting the crisis point. We want to get to a point where we no longer need to give emergency food aid through foodbanks.”
Revd Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Team Rector of St Luke In The City added, “In St Michael’s we have a building that is ideal for this market. Available, flexible and in an ideal location, it was logical we invited Micah Liverpool to base their market here. We pray it will make a big difference to local people and help eradicate the scourge of poverty we find ourselves in.”
How the community market works
Micah Liverpool pays a small fee to an organisation called FareShare who go around and collect all the unwanted or donated food from supermarkets like Tesco and deliver them to organisations that can use them like us. These items are perfectly edible but can’t be sold for a number of reasons such as:
- Near their ‘Best Before Date’ or have had an extension on their ‘Best Before Date’ meaning they are edible but can’t be sold
- New packaging is being released and the old ones can no longer be sold
- Items are cosmetically damaged and no one will buy them
- End of line ranges such as promotional flavours or products
All of these items would have otherwise gone to landfill so we are helping to feed local people as well as preventing food waste.
Find out more about Micah Liverpool
www.micahliverpool.com