The rise of the social supermarket

They’re known by lots of different names. A social supermarket. The community larder. Your local pantry. But the fundamental idea is the same, and it’s spreading fast. More and more churches and Christian charities are opening these projects to feed their neighbourhood, tackle poverty, reduce food waste and hopefully bring marginalised people into a Kingdom-focused community. I wanted to find out why after a decade of soaring growth of church-based foodbanks, Christians up and down Britain were increasingly moving to a very different model of food support, and what that might mean for the future of the church’s social outreach during our current cost of living crisis.