New kitchen and food shop planned for Filwood Broadway

Community urged to get involved – with initial online survey

Main image: The space at 25 Filwood Broadway where the new kitchen and food shop is planned by The Matthew Tree Project. It is currently a Community Support Hub run by the charity. Picture The Matthew Tree Project.

A local charity has plans to launch a kitchen and food shop on Filwood Broadway – which would also provide volunteering and skills training programmes for local people.

The Matthew Tree Project (TMTP) has been based in Knowle West since 2013 and runs a city-wide crisis support programme, Rebuilding Lives.

Since 2010 it has helped over 12,000 of Bristol’s most vulnerable households and provided the food equivalent of over 2.1m meals.

The charity has an office on Filwood Broadway and took over the former fruit and vegetable shop across the street in 2016 – where it currently runs a Community Support Hub.

The organisation now has plans to extend the work at the Hub and provide a not-for-profit commercial grade production kitchen – RISE Kitchen & Food Shoppe in the premises at 25 Filwood Broadway.

This would also feature a small restaurant area and food retail space to offer fresh nutritious meals – with organic produce provided from the charity’s allotment in Brislington.

CEO and Founder of TMTP, Mark Goodway, feels the project is needed as people in Bristol have “unequal access to nutritious, affordable and sustainably sourced food.”

He says: “…Food inequality has been made worse by COVID-19 and is further threatened by impacts of Brexit and climate change which are pushing up the price of food. It is people who are already most disadvantaged who feel the impacts of food inequality first and most severely.”

“Our hope is for the local community to get fully involved…”

To make sure the food project best meets the needs of local people – the charity is asking for feedback through an online survey. It wants to know what residents think is most needed and how it can be delivered through a project such as this.

Mark adds: “So much work has gone into laying the foundations for this new food production project, over so many years, and we are really excited that it is finally coming to life. Our hope is for the local community to get fully involved and, together, we are able to create something really special for the people of Filwood.”

The survey is in two parts and includes feedback on what life is like living in Filwood and how you would like to see Filwood Broadway developed – as well as food buying habits and what the RISE Kitchen & Food Shoppe needs to do to benefit you.

Visit: https://forms.gle/xnWjJ94LboEdkU929

For more information about the charity visit: https://the-matthew-tree-project.org