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Hope St Mellons is building a safe, connected and thriving community on the east side of Cardiff
A volunteer-led organisation based on the outskirts of Cardiff, Hope St Mellons has become an integral part of the local community as it looks to connect people, support those in need and work for social justice.
With the help of a £40,000 two-year Community Grant from the Greggs Foundation, the recently established charity is quickly developing an array of programmes and services as it works to become a sustainable, successful organisation.
The genesis of Hope St Mellons can be traced back to 2018 when a group of community-minded volunteers came together to deliver a number of children and youth activity projects in the suburb of Cardiff.
Fast forward to 2023 and Hope St Mellons became a registered charity – marking the culmination of several years’ work to secure funding and deliver a broad range of community initiatives bringing people in the local community together. As Charity Director, Helen Griffiths explains,
“Our projects now include the St Mellons Pantry and Pantry Garden; wellbeing workshops; a mutual aid fund, a scholarship programme and a number of clubs and activities for people of all ages and backgrounds.”
The St Mellons Pantry was an initiative established during Covid – designed to help people’s food budget go further. A membership-led initiative, pantry members can pay £5 a week in exchange for £15-£20 worth of healthy, quality produce delivered in partnership with FareShare and a range of local suppliers.
This initiative is particularly essential in an area identified as Wales’s “most-deprived food desert”. Helen says,
“The Pantry is very much about building community together around a common need: food. By offering a local source of affordable food the Pantry also prevents households from reaching that point of food crisis where they may need to utilise a food bank. It enables households to stretch out their food resources and is now utilised by more than 100 households in the local area.”
She continues,
“A lot of activities grew around the Pantry, including coffee mornings, craft groups and gardening clubs. Much of the focus of these was on reducing isolation. And, of course, everything we grow in the garden goes into the Pantry.
“As one local member put it: the Pantry has helped to change their life, significantly improved their mental health and helped them financially, too.”
Registering Hope St Mellons as a charity in 2023 also coincided with the organisation’s move into new premises – a community building that would become the hub for those wanting to take advantage of the charity’s services.
Helen explains that running a community centre presents its own challenges and can be quite daunting. But she says that accessing core funding through the Greggs Foundation Community Grant has been important in providing security and confidence in the team’s ability to deliver for the community.
“We’re still relatively new as a charity and the core funding has really helped us to find our feet so that we can develop as a sustainable organisation. One of the most exciting things about being able to take on and run the building is the ability to provide a space for lots of different activities and groups. The funding from the Greggs Foundation helps to make that possible. Some of the funding we’ve received from the Greggs Foundation has also gone into the Pantry. Recent changes in the UK food system have impacted the amount of surplus food that is available. That’s a challenge for pantries like ours and so having funds from the Greggs Foundation has enabled us to bridge that gap. We’ve also created a new paid post in our Volunteer and Community Development Coordinator – enabling us to coordinate and support the 40+ volunteers who run our groups, deliver our programmes and keep the charity running.”Helen Griffiths, charity director
Alongside the many activities and initiatives designed to support positive health and wellbeing within the community, Hope St Mellons also now manages a Mutual Aid Fund, which collects local donations and distributes them to those in need during times of hardship or crisis. Applications for the fund typically range from paying towards gas and electricity bills for those experiencing fuel poverty, or otherwise contributions towards food, rent, emergency travel or similar. Helen explains,
“The mutual aid fund was set up during the pandemic and it’s been vital really for many people since then. We’ve had an incredible £20,000 donated by local people to support others in the community in that time.”
Asked how the experience of working with Greggs Foundation has been, Helen says,
“The Foundation has made things really easy for us. They’ve been clear, communicative and supportive with us throughout the process of applying for and receiving the grant. We were also recently invited on a call alongside other grant beneficiaries where the team outlined other support services and schemes run by the Greggs Foundation, which has been so helpful."