A North Battersea community centre and youth club is one of many Wandsworth charities benefitting from Tesco’s surplus food redistribution scheme.

Providence House Youth Club on Falcon Road has been improving the lives of young people in the area for 50 years, and is aided in its effort by weekly food parcels through Community Food Connection, run by Tesco in conjunction with FareShare.

Providence House was the brainchild of Elizabeth Braund, who realised there was no form of creative recreation on offer for local young people.

Providence House and The Venue Community Centre provide a weekly programme of social, sporting, recreational and educational activities as well as schemes during the school holidays.

The group’s Waste Not Want Not project led By Volunteer community Chef Hadas Hagos encompasses a number of schemes that use surplus food provided by Tesco Metro on Battersea Park Road.

This includes: Film and Feast, which is a free community feast and film screening that takes place at The Venue on the first Friday of every month to build community engagement, combat social isolation and promote healthy eating, and serves between 30 and 70 people each month.

A food distribution evening is also hosted at the community centre every Wednesday afternoon, with a healthy eating café at Providence House each Thursday at 11am. All are not-for-profit activities run by a staff of around 20 volunteers.

Volunteer Director, Robert Musgrave said: “One of our key goals is to provide a sense of community and identity for each of the young people. We offer an alternative to anti-social behaviour and social isolation, and encourage everyone to have fun, make new friends and be involved in the range of activities.

“We rely on an army of volunteers, many of whom are people whose lives were turned around by the organisation, which is great to see.

“Much generosity and support is needed for us to function, and the surplus food we receive from Tesco helps a great deal.

“Many of the activities we undertake underline our strong anti-waste message, and the surplus food also enables us to carry out healthy eating classes each week at a time when nutritional education is vitally important for young people.”