We want everyone to use our 'very green grocery'

"We are not a foodbank, everybody is welcome, everybody wants to save money and everybody wants to save good food from going to waste."

John O'Reilly is head of retail and grocery at Changing Lives Together, which runs The Very Green Grocery inside its ReUse Warehouse in Crewe, Cheshire.

The community grocery sells retailer's over supplies, short dated items and products where packaging has been damaged during transit.

"If we don't pick this stuff up it goes in a big skip, in landfill. It's good food. We are the outlet to make sure it gets passed on," said Reilly.

Every customer pays £7 to shop, and the charity said most come away with bags of goods with a retail value of £30-£35.

Customers are allowed to pick a certain number of items from each section of the grocery, which includes fresh fruit and veg, tinned and baked goods, and frozen foods.

Reilly said he loves being able to offer affordable food, as he "detests" waste of any kind.

Companies will contact him about stock they do not want and his team of staff and volunteer drivers will go and collect.

"They know how reactive we can be, so literally I can get a phone call, email, WhatsApp message in the morning, and we can be there within hours."

Given the nature of what they do, it does mean the food offering can vary greatly, so Reilly said it is about just giving it a go.

"It might be the time you come down, it's 'wow, this is everything I want'. The next time you come down, it might be half of what you need and the next time it might be full again," he said.

Although the charity's warehouse, in the Victoria Centre in Crewe, is open seven days a week, the grocery store inside currently opens twice a week - on Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings, with hopes to expand the hours.

"The ideal scenario would be that we were open 5, 6 days a week, the logistics issue we have is obviously getting the stock from suppliers to do that," Reilly said.

The charity, which also has grocery sites in Northwich and Winsford, is looking to increase its contact list of retailers and distribution firms with surplus food to donate.

Tamyra Milne visits the Crewe grocery every Friday and feels more places should have them.

"Obviously it's helping me in terms of saving money, especially with everything going up in price, but it's also helping with all the stuff that's going into landfill when it's not needed," she said.

Milne said a weekly shop would normally cost her £80, so to spend £7 in this store and then around another £25 elsewhere was "ridiculously cheap, and really good as well".

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