Cushendall, County Antrim
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has agreed to more than £10,000 in funding for a Cushendall social supermarket.
At this month’s Leisure and Development committee meeting, members were asked to seek approve an amendment in the award of Social Supermarket Support Fund (SSMSF) monies, received from the Department for Communities (DfC), for 2024-25.
A social supermarket a is a low-cost store that sells items to low-income people within local communities.
In September 2023, council agreed to invite expressions of interest from organisations that might be interested in exploring and setting up a social supermarket model, one of which was St Vincent De Paul (SVP) Cushendall.
Council officers worked with SVP Cushendall to explore and support the establishment of a social supermarket, and last September the council approved the award of a contract to SVP at a value of £10,642.
SVP Cushendall has since decided to set up a separate entity to operate the social supermarket as a stand-alone project, Glens Social Supermarket Ltd, which was incorporated as a company in November with members of SVP Cushendall as directors.
Elected members voted in favour of awarding the new contract to Glens Social Supermarket Ltd as the new entity operating the project, instead of SVP Cushendall, at the Committee meeting.