Community shop Love Downham, in Downham Market launches with official opening
A community shop has launched in Downham, citing people’s ‘greater need’ during the cost of living crisis.
The shop, ‘Love Downham’, on Bridge Street, provides a variety of services from offering subsidised food donated by local producers and businesses to a clothes shop with ‘nearly new’ items.
The shop, run by Downham charity Swan Youth Project, will also offer the opportunity for young people to build work skills and for the wider community to attend workshops and courses.
It also offers a volunteering opportunity for those taking part in the Princes Trust Programme, and offers volunteering roles for people to gain customer service skills.
The Swan Youth Project is an organisation that supports young people and their families with any problems they may have.
Love Downham will also act as a warm space where people can go if they need to.
It’s opened after members of the Swan Youth Project team said there was a greater need for a bigger community space in Downham due to the effects people are having with the cost of living crisis.
You become a member to access the shop, which involves giving some basic information to the Love Downham team to make sure you are in the area and how many people live in your home.
Love Downham had a soft opening before Christmas and Liz Heighton-Jupp, who is running the shop, said: “We had the mindset that we wanted to get started and that we were as ready as we could be.
“We’re right in the centre of town so people will know that we’re here.”
She thanked some local businesses for their continued support: “We’ve had so many donations and support from local farmers, businesses and supermarkets such as Tesco, Morrisons and Iceland as well as members of the public.
“We’ve worked with charitable organisations and with supermarkets who have let us buy in bulk.”
Project manager and CEO of the Swan Youth Project, Anna Foster, also expressed her thanks in a speech given at the opening in front of many supporters.
She said: “Hopefully this will be brilliant for Downham Market. We’re a team of seven - originally there were just a few of us but our team has grown through need.”
She thanked West Norfolk Council for its support and local businesses for donations such as clothes shop For Frocks Sake, Morrisons, John Goddards, Barry Wells and Barkers.
She added: “It all goes back to being a whole network and community.”
The project was funded by the Norfolk Community Foundation, as well as some funding given by King’s Lynn Health and Wellbeing.
As well as the food service and clothes shop, the building also has an office space upstairs for Citizens Advice to visit once a fortnight and a meeting room for those completing the Prince’s Trust programme.
Chairman of the Swan Youth Project, James Bagge, said that the opening of the shop will help make connections with more young people in Downham.
He said: “The idea of this shop is to raise the profile of the Swan youth project and have a base for people to come to who need help.
“We make contact with young people in the community who need help and we hope to raise the profile in Downham.”
Love Downham is looking for people to volunteer in the shop one day a week and is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.