The People’s Supermarket launches ‘buy a brick’ campaign to help fund new Hackney store
Inside The People's Supermarket's store in Bloomsbury, Camden. Photograph: TPS
The People’s Supermarket (TPS), said to be one of the UK’s most successful social enterprises, has launched a ‘buy a brick’ campaign to fundraise for its planned new store in Hackney.
The ‘Brick by Brick’ campaign asks the public to buy a £1 brick to fund the build. Local businesses are also invited to get involved in the campaign by sponsoring the project, which aims to raise £2.5 million through donations.
Close to the Olympic site, the new build will be adjacent to Homerton Hospital and overground station.
The store, set across 4,000 sq ft, aims to connect the urban community with local farms to create a commercially sustainable food store.
Unlike food giants such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s, The People’s Supermarket is ‘commmunity-driven’. TPS chief executive, Kate Bull, says that it is “driven by the people for the people”.
Approximately 700 volunteers will be needed every month to keep the shop running as a cooperative, plus an employed kitchen staff of 30.
Bull said: “TPS is a unique economic model that breaks most business norms; the People’s Supermarket has given its local community greater self determination and social empowerment and has created full time jobs, developed local partnerships and improved community cohesion.”
The new store will also launch the first of its “People’s Kitchen” concept, which allows customers to cook and eat meals made from food waste, on site.
The People’s Supermarket first shot to fame two years ago when the original site on Lambs Conduit Street in Camden featured in a Channel 4 documentary series.
Hackney Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and the 2012 Olympic Games, Cllr Guy Nicholson, believes that the new People’s Supermarket will provide Hackney residents with a place to buy “affordable and quality food”.
“TPS represents a co-operative business model that resonates will with the values held by the wider community in Hackney,” he added.
The supermarket is expected to turnover £1.25 million in its first year of trading.
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