The Green Gram Community Refill Shop in Fordingbridge has opened for business.

A preview evening was held at the new shop at Roman Quay on Friday (May 6) with the official opening the following day.

The community refill shop evolved out of Gardner’s Zero Waste - a mobile refill shop which was established by Alderholt resident Jo Anderson in August 2019.

Jo decided to open a shop in Fordingbridge and in late 2021 a steering group of local people passionate about reducing our use of plastic was formed.

The refill shop will help those who aspire towards zero waste by enabling them to buy food, cleaning products, personal care products and household items without single use plastic packaging.

A spokesperson for The Green Gram said: "Opening The Green Gram has been a huge team effort.

"We couldn't have done it without all the shareholders, individual donors and local businesses that have supported us financially, as well as the wonderful individuals, organisations and businesses which have donated their time, expertise and equipment to get us up and running. The shop is truly a community project."

The Green Gram is a community benefit society and is not for profit. It works by members buying shares in the shop. Profits are then ploughed back into the local environmental and social projects, as voted by members. £12,458 has been raised in shares, donations and grants has been raised.

"The Green Gram enables people who shop in Fordingbridge to reduce their single-use plastic by refilling their containers rather than buying new products and the associated packaging.

"We have a fantastic range of delicious dried food, pulses, pasta, rice, herbs, spices, dried fruit, chocolate, flour etc, cleaning products and personal care products for sale.

"Our aim is to make our products very competitively priced so that everyone can afford to shop with us; thus ensuring we can all do our bit to reduce our dependency on single-use plastics," added the spokesperson.

In May, the shop is open from Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm. The shop hopes to expand its opening hours as volunteers are trained. Anyone wishing to volunteer visit: thegreengram.org/volunteer

 

Get more Forest Journal news.

You can also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date.

Email newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk with your comments, pictures, letters and news stories.