Hundreds of Knottingley residents on means-tested benefits can enjoy half-price food shopping, free skills training, and free hot meals for children, at a new store which opens on Pontefract Road on Wednesday [December 15].

Community Shop is an award-winning social enterprise with stores across England, selling surplus food and household products from major retailers at deeply discounted prices. Community Shop aims to support those on the cusp of food poverty by offering free training courses, ranging from cookery clubs to interview skills and business programmes. On-site Community Kitchens serve at-cost hot meals to members and children eat free.

Membership is open to any local resident who receives income support and is motivated to make a positive change to their lives. The Knottingley store will be the eighth Community Shop in the network, and the first to open in West Yorkshire. It will serve around 750 members and create eight new jobs.

Natalie Brown, head of Community Shop said:

 “We are so pleased to be opening Community Shop Knottingley, and particularly to be expanding our offer in Yorkshire, where Community Shop began. The support we provide is focused around empowering and building stronger individuals and more confident communities, and over the past year this has been more essential than ever.”

The store is opening thanks to the support of long-standing partner, The Coalfields Regeneration Trust, the only organisation in the UK dedicated to supporting former mining towns and villages. The Trust owns the property and is providing it on a rent-free basis in order to support the work of Community Shop. This latest partnership follows the successful opening of Community Shop Athersley, near Barnsley, in 2016.

Gary Ellis, chief executive of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust said:

Significant funds have also been donated by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Ocado, Bakkavor, Wakefield Council and WDH.

Vanessa Smith, operations director at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Wakefield, said:

“We have a long-standing partnership with Company Shop Group, having supported with funding and product donations over the years. These stores have a significant impact on people’s lives up and down the country, and we look forward to seeing how the space in Knottingley delivers a positive impact to the people in Wakefield in the run up to Christmas and beyond.”

The Community Shop is one of online supermarket, Ocado’s, key charitable partners. Ocado’s matched donation scheme, You Give We Give, matches the donations of its customers pound for pound, and the total is either given in goods or cash to good causes, such as the opening of new Community Shops. Earlier this year in May, a previous donation enabled the opening of a Community Shop in Liverpool, and the latest donation has helped fund Knottingley’s store too.

Jonathan Wiseman, general counsel and chief people officer at Ocado Retail said:

"We recognise that they are an essential lifeline to many, particularly during this challenging time. Together with Ocado customers, we look forward to being able to help future Community Shops open and reach even more people in 2022.”

The Community Shop team will work closely with other social groups in Knottingley, and once it opens, the store will be self-sustaining.

Cllr Maureen Cummings, Wakefield Council’s cabinet member for communities, poverty and health, said:

 “It is really important to us to help and support our most vulnerable residents and that’s why we are really pleased to financially support Community Shop Knottingley, to help make it a reality and impact positively on our local residents."

Natalie Brown, head of Community Shop, added:

 “As always, we would not have been able to get to this position without the support of our partners. We will continue to work closely with local organisations and partners to make Community Shop Knottingley a reality, and we would encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about how to help make a positive social impact locally to get in touch.”