The Elim Network Church pioneering the first London community grocery store
Through the first London community grocery store, run in partnership with The Message Trust, City Gates Church is offering a vital service to locals in Ilford. Pastor Steve Derbyshire gave Chris Rolfe a tour
At City Gates Church in Ilford, more than 1,000 people facing the challenge of the rising cost of living are finding help through a new community store.
Ilford Community Grocery – the first partnership between a London church and Manchester-based The Message Trust – opened earlier this year. And it has been warmly welcomed by low-income families and individuals and others struggling to make ends meet.
Pastor of City Gates Church, Steve Derbyshire
“We were in a meeting with The Message and they explained how they’d opened a number of stores but that they were mainly in the north. They’d never done anything in London,” says City Gates pastor Steve Derbyshire. “Our church is quite influential in our town, with a lot of local relationships and community links through things like our coffee shop, mother and toddlers group and the fact we’re a Christians Against Poverty centre, so we agreed to partner with The Message and Redbridge Council to open a shop.”
On the ground floor of the church’s huge five-storey building, next to the café, the store and its storeroom occupy a good-sized space which was allocated as the team got ready to open in the spring.
Today, more than 1,000 people have signed up to shop at Ilford Community Grocery.
Community stores aim to bridge the gap between supermarkets and food banks. Members pay £5 for a year’s membership and can then do daily £5 shops consisting of 12 items. From fresh fruit, veg and meat to tinned goods, toiletries and pet food, affordable but high-quality groceries are available five days a week, acquired from various supermarkets and food distributors.
Steve explains that the shop serves a wide variety of customers. While many are on low incomes, many others have full-time jobs in London but are still struggling with the cost of living.
“I’ve got people on good salaries but in London, if your mortgage rises to 6% and especially if you’ve got kids too, you require a substantial amount of income to pay for everything. It’s so expensive.” Now that the popular shop is up and running, ning, the team are looking to introduce wraparound services to offer further help to the community.
The Message provides its Community Grocery members with access to courses including debt management support through CAP, cooking lessons, Alpha courses and more. As a CAP centre, and with existing counselling services and many community activities already in place, City Gates Church is perfectly placed to offer this.
As well as the community store, City Gates Church
also operates a café on the ground floor
The store would not be possible without the team behind it, Steve says.
Two paid staff – Alvaro Adair and Jackie Oladimeji run the business and extra services while a team of volunteers keep shelves stocked, sign up new members and look after customers. Alvaro and Jackie say one of the main joys of the job is getting to know customers and helping to support them during difficult times.
“It’s humbling to hear people’s stories and how the shop is making a difference,” says Alvaro.
“Anyone can go through a season where things are really bad but we trust this is just for a time, and that they will come out of it.”
Steve says one of the benefits of running the store in partnership with The Message is the freedom staff have to be open about their faith.
Alvaro agrees: “We’re getting to know our customers and sometimes get to pray for or with them,” he says.
“For me, it’s the fact the shop is non-judgmental,” adds Jackie. “People can come in and be themselves. They might arrive feeling sad but by the time they leave, they have a smile on their faces.”
It’s so much more than simply selling groceries, says Steve.
“I’ve watched these guys at work and it’s about the level of care they give too. Jesus made friends with people, and you have to do that before you can share your faith with them. People know we’re a church in the middle of their community and they come here because they feel secure.”
The cafe is situated right next to the community store, offering a welcome space for visitors
This is central to the wider vision of the church, he adds.
“It’s about helping to provide what our community needs, improving lives and sharing the gospel as we do.
“Jesus walked alongside people and this is what we’re trying to do too.”
Church is just the business!
On weekdays, City Gates Church also acts as a venue for business and Christian events.
Last year, the team was thrilled when City Gates Conference Centre was selected as the Ilford Business of the Year.
“We rent rooms out for business meetings – sales and quarterly meetings, charity AGMs and so on. We also do a lot of Christian worship events,” says former manager Anthony Lindsey who has now moved to work in financial services but still takes a keen interest in the conference centre.
The team strives to ensure their building, facilities and service are excellent, and through this to change their clients’ and community’s perception of church.
“We’ve been really proactive in making sure that the conference centre is a staple of the community and that we reshape people's view of church,” says Anthony. “One of the main things people always say when they come here is, ‘Is this a church?!’ When people think of churches, they typically think of wooden pews. But they come here and see a fantastic building, community shop and café as soon as they walk in.”
This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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