Fairbite Food Clubs
Our Fairbite Food Club network helps meet the need for affordable food and provides wider support to people in ongoing financial hardship.
What are Fairbite Food Clubs?
A Fairbite Food Club is a local affordable food shop where members pay a small membership fee and choose from a range of cupboard staples, fresh food and household products on a weekly basis. Most shops also run alongside a community café, where members can meet, and where agencies like Citizens Advice offer ongoing support and guidance.
Fairbite Food Clubs are a Cambridge City Foodbank initiative, delivered in partnership with local community organisations.
The people here are nice and friendly, and everyone is in the same boat. When you have got a family to feed Fairbite helps a lot. It helps us eat more vegetables and fresh food. And you can get the help you need, like from the advice agencies that visit.
The Fairbite Food Club network
Fairbite Arbury
Opened in 2018. Members can shop on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and Thursday evenings.
Fairbite Hope
Opened in 2022, and run in partnership with Hope Church in Chesterton. Members shop on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.
Fairbite St Andrew's
Opened in 2024 and run in partnership with St Andrew's in Cherry Hinton. Members shop on Wednesday afternoons.
Fairbite Trumpington
Fairbite Trumpington joined the network in 2024 and is open for members to shop on Friday lunchtimes.
Fairbite Queen Edith's
Opened in 2024 and run in partnership with St James Church in Queen Edith's. Open for members to shop on Saturday mornings.
Why Fairbite Food Clubs work
We know that need across Cambridge is rising. Not only are our Foodbank Welcome Centres busier than ever, but we are seeing more and more people who need to visit our Foodbank more than once. A one-off emergency food parcel is rarely sufficient to get people experiencing chronic hardship back on their feet. Instead, they need more sustained support. Fairbite Food Clubs help us meet this need sustainably, and create opportunities for people to access support, advice and community.
Fairbite Food Clubs are community-led, which means we support partner organisations across Cambridge to do the day-to-day operations, and we provide the products that are available for members. The partner organisations are embedded in their communities, and provide connection and wrap around support for people experiencing hardship. In 2024 we partnered with existing community food hubs to open three new Fairbite Food Clubs, growing the network to five locations.
Our members get involved in the running of the shops by taking on volunteer responsibilities and taking part in feedback and engagement sessions. The guidance, wider support, events and initiatives run for and by members are shaped by members' needs, ideas and feedback.