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Community Groceries Impact Report 2025

The Message Trust's Community Groceries Impact Report 2025 celebrates five years of the network: 33 groceries in areas of need, over 80,000 families supported to put food on the table, 1.18 million shopping trips, 15 million meals provided to families battling food poverty and 1,500 tonnes of surplus food saved from waste.

Report snapshot
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About

The Message Trust is a UK charity (Registered Charity No. 1081467) working with young people and communities; its Community Groceries network provides affordable food and wraparound support in areas of need.

Key Metrics

Families supported Over 80,000 families supported to put food on the table, representing 225,000 people
Meals provided 15 million meals provided to families battling food poverty across 1.18 million shopping trips
Surplus food saved 1,500 tonnes of surplus food saved from waste
Volunteers 5,750 volunteers signed up and trained
Grocery network 33 Community Groceries in areas of need, grown from a single store opened in September 2020

Key Outcomes

  • Over 80,000 families (225,000 people) have been supported to put food on the table through affordable membership groceries in areas of need.
  • 15 million meals were provided from surplus food, saving 1,500 tonnes from waste and saving members an estimated £5 million.
  • 5,750 volunteers were signed up and trained, and members accessed 30,000 hours of support including job clubs and courses beyond food.

Geography

UK-Wide

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
438,000 pets treated across 49 Pet Hospitals, equivalent to 4,700 pets every working day
Key Metric 2
Over 2 million treatments provided; veterinary services cost over £85 million, funded entirely by donations
Key Metric 3
327,000 children reached with pet education messages; Pet Health Hub received over 4 million online visitors
Veterinary care provided to the pets of over 360,000 people in financial hardship across the UK, with 46% of clients disabled or living with a serious health condition
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
2.4 million benefits calculations completed via free Benefits Calculator
Key Metric 2
1.5 million people identified new benefits worth an average of £5,396 each (£12.9bn total)
Key Metric 3
£3 million in grants awarded, supporting 2,164 people across the UK
4.8 million people accessed the Turn2us website for information on claiming support they are entitled to
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
7,325 individual children supported; 9,269 instances of support across the year; 6,660 referrals fulfilled; 485 emergency newborn hospital packs delivered to 23 London hospitals...
Key Metric 2
734 regular volunteers; 31,348 volunteer hours; 146 one-off volunteers (700+ hours); 99 corporate volunteer groups (3,900 hours)
Key Metric 3
Items gifted worth over £3 million (if new); 128 tonnes of goods redistributed; £22,714 in financial support secured or saved for families via signposting;...
Connections and signposting: Family Connections team spoke to 2,764 families; signposting support provided 1,037 times; 77% of signposting recipients had never accessed similar help before; £22,714 in financial support secured or saved