Community Shop Swarcliffe has officially opened and will provide hundreds of local people with access to discounted surplus food and household items, as well as affordable hot meals, skills workshops and further learning opportunities.

The new store is the 14th in Community Shop’s network of social supermarkets, each of which tackles the root causes of food insecurity in communities experiencing social inequality, offering members a hand-up, not just a handout.

This latest store opened thanks to the support of Leeds-based Asda, who have supported Community Shop’s other stores for over a decade through the donation of surplus products. Asda provided funding to convert the Swarcliffe building into Community Shop’s unique three space format and will continue to donate stock to provide the community with access to quality food.

Since its inception in 2013, Community Shop has supported over 73,000 families through this model, embedding resilience within communities and improving peoples’ circumstances for the long-term. Community Store has saved members over £50 million on their regular food shops, whilst the Community Hubs have delivered more than 218,000 development programmes and Community Kitchens have fed over 880,000 children for free.

Community Shop Swarcliffe is made up of three distinct but interconnected spaces – Community Store, Community Hub and Community Kitchen. The store will provide members with access to deeply discounted food and essentials, including fruit, vegetables and bread for only 20p. The profits from the store will be reinvested into Community Hub which will deliver life-changing holistic support and development, empowering people across the local community to develop their own capabilities and deliver a positive future for themselves, providing members with the personal tools they need to improve their own circumstances and address the causes of their food insecurity, in a supportive, safe environment. To complete the interconnected spaces, Community Shop Swarcliffe will have a Community Kitchen, a café that enables people to connect with others and learn through food, as well as providing home-cooked meals for the community with kids eating free every day.

Kris Comerford, Chief Commercial Officer at Asda, said: “As a Leeds-based business, we’re excited to be supporting the local community in Swarcliffe through our work with the new Community Shop. Through discounted products and the learning opportunities on offer, we hope this store can provide life-changing support and make a lasting difference to those in the area.”

Gary Stott, Executive Chairman of Community Shop, commented: “For the past 12 years, Community Shop has not only provided our members with access to deeply discounted goods but also delivered life-changing programmes and holistic support so that our members develop their own capabilities and deliver a positive future for themselves. We’re delighted to continue our mission, empowering individuals, families, and communities across the Leeds area and I thank Asda for their support in helping us open this new store.”

Councillor Mary Harland, Leeds City Council’s executive member for communities, customer service and community safety, said: “I am delighted that a new Community Shop has opened in Swarcliffe. As a Council we remain committed to tackling poverty and inequality and so initiatives such as this are a key part of helping us support residents while at the same time reducing the amount of food going to landfill.”

The store operates on a free membership basis and will be open to those on means-tested benefits who live in the local area.

Ample, the marketplace for farm surplus, teams up with award-winning logistics company Oakland International to build a kitchen that will produce millions of delicious and nutritious meals for schools and hospitals using surplus food.

The problem: Fresh produce is treated like a pariah – dumped, hidden and destroyed
Up to 15% of all food grown in the UK never leaves the farm1, mainly because it doesn’t fit cosmetic requirements demanded by supermarkets. This equates to over 10 million meals every day – more than enough to end food poverty. And farmers, obliged to deliver what consumers want, don’t get paid for produce that doesn’t make the grade. Where does it go? Most is being ploughed in, burned or disposed of as waste.

The Solution: Ample Kitchen
Building on the success of Ample Marketplace, launched in 2024, Ample Kitchen will utilise these surpluses to produce millions of high-value meals, and at the same time ensure that farmers are paid a fair price for their great British produce.
Drawing on Oakland’s expertise and resources we will build a dedicated production facility near Redditch to produce high quality, nutritious and delicious meals using surplus ingredients. Ample Kitchen will have the capacity to produce a million meals every month, blast frozen to extend the life of produce that would otherwise go to waste. We will oer a range of family favourites and classic dishes and components that appeal to a broad audience, such as vegan lasagne, fish pie, chicken and leek pie, cauliflower/squash cheese and root vegetable gratin; packaged in both individual and catering variants.

This serves several cost-sensitive markets including school meal programmes, community outlets and the NHS, as well as direct to consumers. Ample meals will also be available to purchase directly and to donate to social causes fighting poverty, including our charity partners such as FareShare and The Felix Project. Our take on BOGOF is to buy one and GIVE one free.

Partners: Ample + Oakland
Ample is a startup innovator that enables British farmers to sell their fresh, tasty produce to sustainably-minded businesses in the food industry including restaurants, wholesalers, manufacturers, caterers and charities.
Oakland International is an award-winning full service logistics business with a reputation for innovation through sustainability, servicing retail, wholesale, discount and convenience markets in the UK and Ireland.
Leon Aarts, food advocate and Ample Co-Founder said, “We are really excited to be launching Ample Kitchen because it will demonstrate a sustainable way to address our food chain crisis. We can’t bear to see good food go to waste, especially when we all know how important it is to act and mitigate climate change. Together with our amazing partners at Oakland we are bringing nutritious and delicious British food to students and patients at keen prices.”

Dean Attwell, Co-Founder of Oakland International commented, “At Oakland, we know our purpose extends beyond job creation and profit and measure our success by the impact made in the many communities that make us who we are. We are delighted to partner with Ample to support this ambitious project to establish a dedicated industrial-scale kitchen that will provide high-quality food that will be really appreciated by schools and hospitals.”

Additional Information:
Ample is a commercial business that utilises the discipline of commercial practice to create social impact. Our vision is a world where there is no such thing as food waste.
The idea for the company originated during the Covid pandemic, with the founders working to get food to vulnerable communities. Ample is commied to help solve the food crisis by saving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of farm surplus by ensuring it is identified, sold and consumed. We ensure that farmers get paid fairly, and buyers get a great deal.

Ample Marketplace, launched in 2024 enables farmers to easily sell their surplus produce online where Ample markets it to buyers in the food and catering industry. Hassle-free logistics are built-in to ensure food is delivered on time and in perfect condition.
Food is a precious resource, and Ample enables buyers and sellers to enhance their sustainability by redirecting food away from waste disposal, animal feed and landfill, and stimulating local food economies, as well as creating good deals for a fair return.

Photo resources are available on request.

Contact for more information: Steve Thomas, steve@ample.shop, or 07968 904007

Magnavale Ltd is proud to announce the official opening of Magnavale Easton. The £140 million investment has resulted in a facility with 101,000 frozen pallet spaces, making it the largest single cold store ever built in the UK.

Officially opened its doors on the 24th of March 2025, the development regenerated a long-standing food production site near Grantham, Lincolnshire. The state-of-the-art cold storage warehouse will contribute significantly to UK food security, while setting a new benchmark for sustainable food logistics.

Possibly the UK’s first fully renewable-energy-powered cold storage facility, Magnavale Easton demonstrates the company’s commitment to sustainability and operational efficiency.
With 101,000 cutting-edge fully automated pallet positions and a high-bay, rack-cad storage design, the facility ensures seamless storage and distribution for food manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers.
“Magnavale Easton is more than just a storage facility; it is a transformative development for the UK’s food supply chain,” said Amanda Cogan, COO of Magnavale. “By integrating renewable energy, advanced automation, and a comprehensive portfolio of value-added services, we are helping our customers cut costs, risk and complexity from their supply chains and contributing sustainable long-term growth and investment into the local Lincolnshire economy.”

A Strategic Hub for UK Food Logistics
Magnavale Easton is strategically located off the A1, between Grantham and Peterborough, offering efficient distribution access across the UK.
In addition to its industry-leading automated cold storage capabilities, Magnavale Easton will offer a comprehensive suite of value-added services, including blast freezing, contract packing, and much more from the site.

A Vision of the Future of British Food Supply

This significant milestone is part of a long-term vision of regeneration for the site, which used to be a major McCain Foods production site. The Easton site will become an integrated food production, storage, and distribution hub, supporting manufacturers and retailers with end-to-end cold chain solutions.

The next steps in this mission are already underway. In February 2025, the site was granted planning permission for further exciting developments including a biodigester and a large food production facility.
Magnavale Easton is now open and operating bringing efficient, safe, and sustainable cold chain solutions that will revolutionise food supply chains locally and nationally.

Magnavale is one of the UK’s leading temperature-controlled food storage specialists, with four strategically located cold storage facilities.

Leading the way within the sector, Magnavale aims to create sustainable supply chains for its partners by cutting cost, risk, and complexity in the cold chain.

Rapidly growing Magnavale have developed both a large 25,000 pallet extension to their facilities in Chesterfield and a 101,000 pallet, fully automated cold store in Easton, Lincolnshire which opened in March 2025.

Sadel Group, who own Magnavale, is pushing the Easton Food Hub project forward as part of its operational real estate development plans. Sadel Group, a Luxembourg based family office, will extend the innovative “Food Hub” model to new sites across the UK and Europe. The Food Hub model integrates food production and processing with the supply chain, reducing cost, risk, and complexity in the food chain.

For further information, contact:
Shane Meharg
PR@magnavale.co.uk