On behalf of the team which has been working very hard for the last five months to make The Nest community shop a reality, I would like to clarify one or two things in the article published in the Echo on 25th November.

The vision for Weymouth to have a community shop, set up using the ‘social supermarket’ model, has taken almost four years to become a reality and recently an excellent group has come together to make it happen.

Nationally almost 10% of the population is on Universal Credit; locally it is 14%.

Nationally around 10% of the population is classed as ‘food insecure’ which means they cannot guarantee to put good food on the table; locally that will be around 14%. One fifth of those people are in crisis and are eligible to use foodbanks.

What about the other 8,000 people locally? That is where The Nest comes in.

The Nest aims to provide cheap, good quality, nutritious food to families and individuals who have limited disposable income.

The Nest is not a foodbank – it is a not-for-profit shop serving the local Weymouth community. We have already received support from local businesses, the town council and Dorset Council as well as local people.

We want the local community to support this initiative so that it can reach and help the thousands of people who will benefit. So who are these people?

Our members are people who week on week struggle to pay for everything and so could benefit from a cheaper food shop.

There are no strict criteria for who can become a member of The Nest but things like receiving Universal Credit, another income-based benefit, receiving free school meals or working with a debt charity would automatically qualify a person.

Anyone with limited disposable income who thinks they could benefit from signing up should get in touch. People pay for their shopping but at around one third of the price of a main supermarket. Most of the food is provided by FareShare which coordinates good, usable food from supermarkets which would otherwise go to waste.

This is at a much reduced cost to The Nest. We are also grateful to local shops which pass on good food which is surplus to their requirements. If anyone wants more information please contact thenestweymouth@gmail.com or call the manager on 07724 285851.

NEIL HARDISTY

On behalf of the directors of The Nest, Weymouth CIC