Plans for a landmark new food and essentials distribution hub are set to be approved by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority as part of a new regional partnership with Bristol Charities, to help provide support to more families across the West.
The all-in-one site is likely to be a multimillion-pound warehouse space in the region of 30,000 square feet (about half the size of a football pitch) to serve as a central site to store, coordinate, and redistribute urgently needed items. These surplus items include food, household products, clothing and bedding, furniture and white good, technology and school supplies – which the UK currently sends hundreds of millions of pounds of to landfill each year.
The hub is the first of its kind in the country to be designed by a combined authority with local charities and councils, and plans have been developed with FareShare South West. It could include a fully equipped catering kitchen to provide vital space for cooking projects and community meals; skills and capacity-building support, including training in food hygiene; and other employment support such as work experience and apprenticeships for young people out of work.
Tackling the cost of living was set out as a top priority for the West in the Growth Strategy approved last year. The Child Poverty Action Plan which followed last month, published alongside a visit by the Mayor and council leaders to the Tynings Primary School and Nursery in Staple Hill, reiterated the need for action in this area, and is also set for approval next week.
Across the region, tens of thousands of people experience food insecurity, with families and households unable to consistently access food. Some 67,000 children are currently growing up in poverty in the West: enough to fill Twerton Park, the Rec, Ashton Gate, and the Memorial Stadium at the same time – with room still needed for another 5,000 kids. Political leaders across the region have campaigned for and welcomed the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap which, in one stroke, will benefit 23,500 children in the West and lift 450,000 children out of poverty nationally.
The Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector provides a critical lifeline for families and households facing hardship. However, charities and community organisations need greater capacity to meet rising demand, particularly in light of the unaffordable cost of warehouse space in the current commercial market. The hub would address this challenge by offering VCSE groups access to affordable rental space.
Proposals for the Mayor and council leaders at their next meeting on 30 January set out plans to develop a full business case for a regional logistics hub and seek in-principle support for up to £2 million of investment from the regional authority, matched by Bristol Charities.
Bristol Charities is one of the city’s oldest organisations, dedicated to supporting local communities for over 600 years. Originally formed from a collection of small trusts and almshouses, it has grown into a single organisation with the resources and independence to invest directly in communities, alongside deep local knowledge, and a clear ambition to tackle inequity at its roots. Through the development of community hubs, the charity is already putting this ambition into action, addressing poverty across the city.
FareShare South West has partnered with the combined authority and Bristol Charities to develop the proposals, which would provide a much-needed hub to enable urgent expansion of the charity’s core activity and boost local employment opportunities. FareShare South West works across the region to rescue high-quality food from the food industry and shares it with charities, food clubs and schools, turning an environmental problem into lasting social good. The charity saved 1,830 tonnes of good-quality food from being binned in 2024/25 and distributed 664 tonnes of food – worth £2.5 million – across Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, and South Gloucestershire alone, supporting more than 150 charities and providing 1.6 million meals to around 18,000 people in this region, including 52,000 meals to the Oasis Bath Pantry at the Paragon and Southdown.
This initiative has also been inspired by the example of The Multibank charity launched by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, which works with a coalition of major retail manufacturers, suppliers, and philanthropists to give businesses a scaled donations point for their surplus stock which is donated via local charity to provide vital support to families experiencing poverty. The West of England’s plans also come ahead of surplus stock becoming more readily available from April, when the Chancellor’s budget decision to remove the 20% VAT levied on business donations of unwanted stock comes into effect.
Helen Godwin, Mayor of the West of England, said:
“Working together to prevent surplus food and household products from going to waste can help power our efforts to tackle child poverty, so that more children get the best start in life in our region. Our regional hub would make a real difference to people’s lives across the West of England. These proposals are innovative and nation-leading, bringing together food and non-food redistribution together for the first time under one roof, reflecting the collaboration between Bristol Charities, FareShare South West, Multibank, and our combined authority and local councils to get to this point.”
Julian Mines, Chief Executive of Bristol Charities, said:
“To tackle the deep inequalities across the region requires long-term sustained investment in infrastructure. On top of ever-increasing operational costs, charities and groups supporting local people are being squeezed by the availability of affordable premises, with many unconfident in their ability to deliver as a result. We are absolutely delighted to be working in partnership with the combined authority and leading charities such as FareShare South West on a landmark solution that will help improve the resilience of the sector, enabling them to deliver greater support and ensure more local people get the urgent help they need.”
Lucy Bearn, CEO of FareShare South West, said:
“We are urgently in need of more space to meet the increasing demand we’re seeing across our region. This new hub would be a game-changer in enabling us to rescue and share food for an additional 3 million meals by 2030.
“Beyond this, it opens huge opportunities for us to expand the support we provide, scale up our pioneering employability programme, and work with like-minded charities to share resources and maximise our impact across the West.”
Anti-poverty campaigner and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:
“Mayor Helen Godwin’s ambition to bring together all the powers and ingenuity available in the West of England to tackle child poverty is inspiring. Helen deserves widespread support for her leadership, and compassion towards the children in her region, as she introduces these very welcome, new policies and new methods of cooperation to combat child poverty.”
Councillor Kevin Guy, Leader of Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) Council and Deputy Mayor, said:
“Rising prices have a daily impact on families in B&NES and although we shouldn’t be in a position where a distribution hub is needed, we welcome this direct action to help people. The hub will make a difference to people experiencing food insecurity, as well as support young people with jobs and training.”
Councillor Tony Dyer, Leader of Bristol City Council, said:
“Too many families in the West of England are struggling to access the food and the essentials they need, and the impacts of that hardship are felt most acutely by children. This proposed regional partnership with Bristol Charities represents an important investment in dignity, fairness, and long term support for the families who need it most.
“I am pleased the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority is continuing to take a region wide approach so that every child, wherever they live, can benefit from this vital support. By working together with partners across the region, we can reach more households and help ensure every child has the best possible start in life.”
Councillor Catherine Gibbons, Deputy Leader of North Somerset Council and Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Families and Lifelong Learning, said:
“This is a positive step towards making sure more families can access the food and essential items they need. This new partnership shows what can be achieved when organisations work together with a shared commitment to supporting those who need it most. By creating a regional distribution hub with Bristol Charities, we can strengthen local support networks, reach more people, and help ensure that access to food and essential items is reliable, dignified, and responsive to real need across our communities.”
