Social supermarkets offer choice and self-esteem to hard-up workers

theguardian.com:

In the crypt of a 283-year-old London church, you would not normally expect to see displays of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish next to shelves of tinned food, toilet rolls and nappies, and customers with baskets doing their weekly shop.

But from September, that will be the scene at the City of London’s first social supermarket, which is to open in the vaults of Christ Church Spitalfields, a Nicholas Hawksmoor-designed church close to the financial district. It will replace a food bank set up during the pandemic that has been used by 20 to 70 families a week during the past year.

Small social supermarkets have been springing up across the UK in recent years, some of them having started out as food banks. (At a social supermarket users pay for their groceries, but get a large discount.) They cater for low-income families – in the case of Christ Church these are referred by the local primary school – and pay a membership fee and/or a weekly fee for their shop.

The vast majority of the families who use the Christ Church food bank include one or two adults who are working. Natasha Grimmett, head of social transformation at the church, said: “With the energy crisis and the rising cost of living, it’s hard when two parents are working and still they’re not able to meet basic necessities. It’s a misconception that people using food banks are unemployed.”

Rather than picking up a free package of food and other staples, families using the new social supermarket will be able to choose from dozens of products. For a membership fee of £15 or £20 a year, they can do their weekly shop each Thursday for a fee of £3. The Pepys social supermarket in Lewisham, south London, runs on similar lines: local people pay a £3.50 weekly fee for