The Nest opens second community shop in Littlemoor

The first site opened in Abbotsbury Road in November 2020 and helped hundreds of people within its inaugural year.

Now a second shop has opened at the Top Club in Littlemoor and is based on a ‘social supermarket’ model seen as a step-up from a foodbank.

The Nest in Littlemoor, picture: Neil Hardisty

Members can purchase ten items of food for £3.50, as well as receive free bread, fruit and vegetables.

“It is great to have a second shop because it means people in the Littlemoor area do not have to travel. It is an area to target because there are lots of people there who would qualify there,” said Neil Hardisty, director at The Nest.

“The second Nest shop has taken longer than we expected to get up and running, but we had the first shoppers come in on Friday and the place is looking fantastic.”

Mr Hardisty says the community support for the new project has been great, with plenty of help from Weymouth supermarkets.

He continued: “The community officer at Morrison’s, Chrissie Priddice, has been a great supporter of us - we have also had great support from Waitrose and Lidl too.

“We have been signing members up for the Littlemoor site. At the Westham site we have well over 350 members now and not all of them come at the same time because we could not afford to feed that many.”

The principle behind the Nest is that it is seen as a top-up to help people get by who have limited disposable income.

With energy bills soaring in recent weeks and the cost of living rising the Nest has seen an increase in people applying for membership.

Mr Hardisty added: “We have seen with the cost of living crisis membership has gone up and we have got many more shoppers.”

Residents who want to access the community shop must become a member, which is free to do via The Nest Littlemoor Facebook page, with no proof of financial hardship required.

The Littlemoor shop is open Tuesdays and Fridays between 10am and 2pm.