Shrewsbury Food Hub gets £20,000 a year to 2029 from the town council's cost of living fund to open more Foodshares. When and where all 13 run now.
Shrewsbury Food Hub has been awarded £60,000 by Shrewsbury Town Council to help residents with food costs. The money comes at £20,000 a year until 2029, from the council’s new Cost of Living Grant Fund. The council announced the award on 17 September.
The charity says the grant will be spent on its Foodshare network. These are open tables where anyone can collect surplus food for a small suggested donation. Plans include more Foodshares, community events and other work to cut household food bills.
What the Food Hub does
The Food Hub collects surplus food from shops, manufacturers and farms that would otherwise be thrown away. It then passes it on through its own Foodshares and through other groups. According to the council’s announcement, the charity:
- runs seven days a week and is powered by volunteers
- supplies more than 90 community groups, including schools, charities, sports clubs, council teams, and homeless, refugee and youth organisations
- runs a community kitchen that turns surplus produce into meals, which go out through community freezers
- teaches cooking and food-waste skills to schools, groups and individuals
Recent workshops named by the council include sessions with The Shrewsbury Ark, residents of Shropshire Council’s temporary accommodation and Shrewsbury Town in the Community.
The charity estimates its redistribution work produced more than £1.7 million in social, economic and environmental value in 2025/26. That is the Food Hub’s own estimate, as reported by the council, not an independently audited figure.
One of four projects in an £80,000-a-year fund
The town council set up the fund with £80,000 a year to back organisations giving practical help to residents under financial pressure. It named four recipients in June, after a competitive application process run by a new Cost of Living Grants Sub-Committee:
- Citizens Advice Shropshire, for a central “Shrewsbury Advice Hub” offering face-to-face welfare, debt and housing advice to working-age residents
- Little Stars, for school uniforms and essentials for children
- Marches Energy Advice, for energy help aimed at low-income working households, including home “Energy MOTs”
- Shrewsbury Food Hub, for food support and redistribution
The Food Hub is the only one of the four whose award the council has put a figure on. Its £20,000 a year is a quarter of the annual fund.
Councillor Emma Micklewright chairs the sub-committee. She said the Food Hub’s application “demonstrated a clear understanding of local need, strong partnership working and a proven ability to deliver practical support where it is needed most.”
David Johns, the Food Hub’s development manager, said: “The funding will help us expand our Foodshare network, reach more households and strengthen the support available through our community partners.”
The work starts in the 2026/27 financial year. The council says it will monitor the project through its grant programme.
What it means for you
The Food Hub says everyone is welcome at a Foodshare. It suggests a £2 donation for a bag of food, plus £1 if you take frozen items. What is on the table changes every day: it could be bread, fruit and vegetables, eggs, chilled food or store cupboard items. The charity’s advice is to arrive early and bring a bag.
This is the current Foodshare timetable, as the Food Hub published it:
| Day | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Belle Vue Youth Centre, Rocke Street, SY3 7PY | 9.15am to 11am |
| Monday | Christ Church, Glebe Road, Bayston Hill, SY3 0PZ | 9.30am to 10.15am |
| Tuesday | Bicton Heath Community Hall (outside), Pensfold, SY3 5HF | 9.30am to 10am |
| Tuesday | Shrewsbury Unitarian Church, 37-38 High Street, SY1 1LR | 9am to 10am |
| Wednesday | Church of the Holy Spirit, 49 Meadow Farm Drive, SY1 4NG | 9.30am to 11am |
| Thursday | Meet Place, Maesbrook Road, SY3 9NL | 9.30am to 10.30am |
| Thursday | Riversway Elim Church, Lancaster Road, Harlescott, SY1 3LE | 5.30pm to 7pm |
| Friday | Shrewsbury Baptist Church, Crowmere Road, SY2 5JJ | 9.30am to 10.30am |
| Friday | Harlescott Grange Community Hub, Kynaston Road, SY1 3JR | 9.30am to 10.30am |
| Saturday | Shrewsbury United Reformed Church car park, Coleham Head, SY3 7BJ | 9.30am to 10am |
| Sunday | St Giles Church Hall, Sutton Way, SY2 6EH | 10.30am to 11.30am |
| 2nd Saturday of the month | Upton Magna Memorial Hall, SY4 4TZ | 9.30am to 11am |
| 3rd Saturday of the month | Rodington Village Hall, SY4 4QS | 9.30am to 11am |
Upton Magna is a village about four miles east of Shrewsbury, and Rodington about seven miles east. The Thursday evening session in Harlescott is the only one outside the morning. The Food Hub says times occasionally change and posts updates on its Facebook and Instagram pages.
If you are in financial crisis rather than looking to stretch a budget, the Food Hub points people to Shropshire Larder, which lists emergency food support across the county. Our pages on council tax bands and council tax support cover other household costs.
Groups that could use surplus food, such as charities, schools and community organisations in or around Shrewsbury, can apply to the Food Hub directly.
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