Founded during the COVID19 pandemic, partner organisation The Message Trust developed the Grocery to help support families with the financial impact of the pandemic. Through partnership with local supermarkets, the Community Grocery is able to offer a wide range of food for the whole family to choose from, at a fraction of the cost, meaning you can save money, help the environment and reduce food waste all in one.
But it’s not just about the food. There’s also a range of free extra support on offer at the grocery should you ever need it. Here is a little update from Andy, our Community Grocery Manager!
So here at the community grocery, God continues (as He has done all along) to bless us with new members, returning members, with faith filled conversations and many opportunities to pray with and for the people He puts in front of us. We are now seeing 55-70 customers every day and we see many of our members at other events at The Shack such as the mens curry night and the Shacks regular lunch and breakfast clubs (you can read all about them here).
In the past 2 months, we have given away at least 50 Bibles and our Children’s Bibles are very popular too! Many members tell us how blessed and welcomed they feel and what a huge difference the Grocery is making to their families.
We’ve had our first member Baptised at the end of November and we are praying in faith for many more.
He also answers our prayers when it comes to food supplies and food pickups from our wonderful supermarket partners. Inevitably, the more people we see, the more food we need!
Back in October when Ron McLean came to speak to us at TVC Church, he asked us to pray for one specific thing. My prayer was for more food supplies to come, so we can continue helping and blessing the increasing amount of members we are seeing. On the Monday, I was at Message HQ in Manchester and a fella walked in saying he had a van full of food that he was taking elsewhere but they didn’t want it, so did we? So I brought half a van load back to Ragworth! I also recieved 2 emails offering 6 more supermarket pickups! On the Tuesday, a local school rang offering us their Harvest festival donations as the local food bank couldn’t take it…another van full! On the Wednesday another school called with the same offer…another van full! Friday another school the same! We’ve also found out Morrison’s at T park are going to be giving us a weekly trolley load as a donation too! I’m not sure quite what the word is for all this but WOW seems good!
Be encouraged, and keep praying in all situations!
17 Dec 2021
