Couple on a mission to tackle hunger
A FAMILY are on a mission to stop more people falling into poverty.
The MC Hub, part of the Mulligan Community social enterprise, opened in Bridgend in July and is run by Amanda and Ed Kirk with the help of their teenage children.
Its Community Shop on Caroline Street is described as being “one step up from a food bank” by offering a bag of food from £5.
It gives people a lifeline with the hope it can catch people before they fall deeper into poverty.
Inside each bag is meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, frozen food, tins and microwaveable meals. If the products were bought from a supermarket, the bag could cost £40.
The first bag of food costs £10 and any additional bags are £5, meaning an £80 food shop can be bought for £15. A bag of frozen food can also be bought for £5, with a bag of fruit and veg costing £2. Bread is free, and anybody is welcome to take a loaf.
Amanda Kirk said: “We don’t turn anybody away. Everybody is welcome.
“Most of our members are from Bridgend but we’ve had people coming from further afield, like Swansea or Rhondda.”
“Mulligan is a golfing term,” said Amanda, whose two teenage children also help out at the centre. “It means to be given a second chance and that’s what we do. Not that these people have failed in any way, we just want to be there to help them back on their feet.”
Within its first month more than 100 people had signed up to the Community Shop scheme, and now that number has trippled. The shop has more than 300 members, with dozens of those queueing for hours before the shop opens with its new stock on a Friday morning.
Amanda, 43, and Ed, 46, helped set up Mulligan Community four years ago, with its main base, the MC Centre, on Bridgend Industrial Estate.
After its huge success, and after realising not everybody can get to the centre, the MC Hub was opened in the heart of Bridgend’s town centre.
Amanda and Ed come from professional backgrounds, with Ed previously managing two Welsh Government buildings and Amanda working in marketing.
But after seeing the number of homeless rising, they decided to give up everything and invest their time and money into helping stamp out poverty and social exclusion.
The MC Hub works with charity FareShare, which aims to tackle hunger and food waste by collecting unwanted food from supermarkets. MC then buys from FareShare - which delivers food once a week - and sells it on to its members. Any profit is reinvested into the hub.
MC is funded entirely by donations and grants and only four people in the enterprise are paid a salary. Amanda said there isn’t a typical customer at the Community Shop and people from all walks of life go through its doors.
“A lot of people come because they’ve used all their food bank vouchers, but others come because they’re on the borderline of poverty,” she said.
“We’ve had people come in because they’re been shopping and they can’t take it anymore, they just can’t afford it.
“We have mums who come in and you look and think ‘oh they’re doing alright, they’re coping’ but then it turns out they’re in food poverty, they can’t afford food and their daughters aren’t going to school because they can’t afford tampons. “Or it’s school holidays and when kids are at home they can’t afford food.
“When we first opened, I’d sometimes be surprised by who came in, but not now. Since Universal Credit, we’ve seen so many more people coming in, a lot of people are desperate.”