Are you aware of the Fareshare scheme?
Fareshare are the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste. The last twelve months has been FareShare’s biggest year yet with a huge increase in the number of community groups benefiting from their service. The food they redistributed last year contributed towards 28.6 million meals. Pontypridd Children’s Contact Centre has been working in partnership with Fareshare for over six months – co-ordinator Dawn told us about the positive impact that this has had:
“Any food left over from the bakery area at our local Tesco on a Friday is donated to the centre on a Saturday morning. This includes bread, rolls, cookies and fruit. All donations are distributed between centre users on a Saturday morning. The scheme has proven to be very successful, and as we have had to start charging a sessional fee, the donation goes some way in cancelling out the fee. Fareshare are really generous with the donations and it has given us a chance to build relations with our local store.”
Quality time playing outside 
Getting toys ready
Pontypridd Children’s Contact Centre offers supported contact every Saturday between 9.45am-1.15pm, only closing on one Saturday throughout the whole year, between Christmas and New Year. There are different rooms and an outdoor play area to enable children to spend quality time with family members and people important to them. The centre is situated at the premises for the Wales Council for Deaf People which recently opened a new sensory garden which families can now enjoy. Situated in the heart of Pontypridd the centre is accessible to local families with easy access to rail and bus routes. The centre has been open since April 2003 and has supported over 50 individual families during the past year.
