Live. Learn. Eat. Grow.
Cherwell Larder is open to everyone.
Visit us at the Exeter Hall, Kidlington, Thursdays-Saturdays 11am-2pm.
Cherwell Collective: Empowering Communities
Cherwell Collective's activities empower the community to reduce waste and lower our carbon footprint.
We do this by directly distributing food surplus via Cherwell Larder Marketplace, by repurposing food surplus in our cafe, Climatarian Kitchen, and by growing food for the community in Harvest @ Home. We also have a new project, Waste Innovation Station, which directly repurposes nonfood. As part of these efforts, we hope to keep items in circulation as long as possible and provide a space for people to "shop surplus first" on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at Exeter Hall in Kidlington.
Learn With Us
Cherwell Collective aims to provide key educational resources related to climate change and ways ordinary consumers can contribute to mitigating climate change. These include:
- How to track the Carbon Cost of your activities and consumer choices.
- The science of climate change and the effects of greenhouse gases.
- How to adopt practices of a climatarian diet.
Cherwell Collective supports not-for-profit community groups in Oxfordshire, UK.
Many of our groups were created during the first COVID lockdown when many families and individuals in our community faced hardship and uncertainty. For some, it was due to children being at home and not having access to school meals. For others, it was having to shield following advice from the government. Meanwhile, others experienced financial hardship directly due to the lockdown and the economic collapse that followed.
Our groups share common goals and guiding principles: To empower our community, increase well-being, support the vulnerable, and reduce waste and environmental impact in our daily lives.
Cherwell Collective’s guiding principles are
- Friends helping friends: Everyone who accesses our services has the opportunity to contribute back to the group, and most of our core volunteers are users of the services as well. We are non-means tested and inclusive by design.
- Keep it green and keep it clean: Climate change is a very real issue, and we all have a part to play if we want to slow down the impact it is having on our planet. We reduce waste, reuse, recycle, repurpose, and rehome anything and everything we can. We keep it green not only in our kitchens and gardens, but right down to the way we run our organisations.
- No food left behind: Food waste is another important issue we are committed to tackling. We like to think of new ways to use food that might have otherwise gone to waste. We share our passion for food waste reduction with the community.
- Education is empowering: We follow the “teach a man to fish” principle and emphasize the value of education around things like cooking, meal planning, healthy alternatives, and seasonal eating.
Which areas do Cherwell Collective’s services cover?
The clue is in our name! Our headquarters are in Kidlington, UK, and our community reach stretches far across Cherwell District and throughout Oxfordshire.
You will find our activities from Summertown and Cuttestlowe to Yarnton, Bicester, Ambrosden, Upper Heyford, Bletchingdon, Kirtlington, Tackley, Weston-on-the-Green, Islip, Begbroke, Steeple Aston, Middle Barton, Banbury and Aynho.
For Cherwell Larder only, we must limit our catchment area. For all our other organisations, we aim to be as inclusive and accommodating to households across Oxfordshire as possible
We are, in the scheme of things, a relatively small collective. However, we are having a big impact. This is what some of our users have said.
We would be happy to meet or have you visit the collective to see our work and what a difference you could make to it. We truly hope you can find a way to support us, and we look forward to hearing from you.
Testimonials
“It’s been a great fill the gap source of food when we’ve struggled to get out and it’s inspired us to create more meals around what we have instead of buying for the meals we want and wasting what we already have”
“I had an accident at work. I'm a nurse who worked the first lockdown on a COVID-19 ward, I broke my foot at work in September and I would have honestly been lost without the larder, it's kept food on the table for me and my boys “
“There has never been any judgement and not having to prove your need which can be quite embarrassing...I have only experienced kindness and respect from everyone involved”
“True kindness and generosity a god send to many families with wonderful volunteers”
