Cherwell Larder: Thursdays 11am, and Fridays at 4pm while supplies last at WISH, 4 The Parade, Kidlington. Ask to join our WhatsApp group for regular updates on additional distributions.
Cherwell Larder Marketplace
Reducing household and food waste
Cherwell Larder Marketplace is a physical and online marketplace for distributing surplus food and household items to our local community. We advocate the concept of “shopping surplus first” as the first of our 5 Climatarian Principles. One way to do so is check and utilise the food surplus offered by Cherwell Larder before you visit the shops. This approach not only saves money but also means that more items are kept in circulation and less are produced. This lowers our community’s carbon footprint and builds community connection and sharing.
How the marketplace works
Food surplus
Food-related businesses (e.g. shops, canteens, restaurants, farms) alert us that they have surplus stocks that they will not be able to sell. Cherwell Collective arranges for staff or volunteers to collect the surplus food.
Oxford Food Hub also facilitates these efforts and supports our services. Let us know if you are business with food surplus!
Our Harvest @ Home project uses greenspace gardens as classrooms to teach the community how to grow food at home.
There’s often much more food than the volunteers can take home, so surplus food goes to Cherwell Larder Marketplace.
The WISH Gleaning Group mobilises volunteers to harvest food from farms that have already harvested their fields, saving uncollected surplus food from rotting, or from community members’ fruit trees or bushes that are not being used.
Household surplus
We collect surplus from businesses that are re-designing, closing, or getting rid of items.
Community members share what they no longer use or need instead of sending it to the bin.
An Apple’s Tale: How Cherwell Collective closes loops in local food supply chains
All are welcome
Cherwell Larder is for all community members, no matter your financial situation. Anyone is free to stop by our weekly marketplace or join our digital community at any time. We need everyone in the community involved in reducing waste! Many of our Cherwell Larder volunteers are also programme users, building solidarity and the sustainability of the larder long-term.
Cherwell Larder Marketplace is a pay-what-you-can service. This provides some support for our efforts as a not-for-profit organisation, while making sure that those who need essentials can access them at a low or free cost.
Stay up to date with our distributions
This community network shares alerts of our distributions through our Facebook Group and WhatsApp communities. We recommend joining our communication channels to ensure you don’t miss anything. We also have regularly scheduled distributions on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday every week.
Weekly distributions
Cherwell Larder: Thursdays 11am, and Fridays at 4pm while supplies last at WISH, 4 The Parade, Kidlington.
Our Climatarian Kitchen café service runs alongside our weekly distributions.
Cherwell Larder Facebook Group
Our active Facebook group shares alerts about our distributions. Many members also announce and share items they no longer need.
Cherwell Collective WhatsApp community
Please fill out a contact form if you’d like to join our WhatsApp Community, and we will send you an invite link. The ‘Cherwell Larder’ sub-group focuses on larder availability and pop-up food distributions during the week.
Volunteer and donate
Individuals
Share your time
We welcome anyone willing to help us with any of the various Cherwell Larder Marketplace activities. We need volunteers for:
- Overseeing our weekly distributions
Share unwanted items or food
Join the Cherwell Larder Facebook page, or the Cherwell Collective WhatsApp community to share the surplus food or household items you would like to share instead of bin! Donations support direct distribution of surplus including emergency parcels for those in extreme need, free school meal support, and winter warmer programs for the vulnerable.
Businesses
If you are a business that occasionally has usable waste that you send to landfills, Cherwell Larder Marketplace can help you get those items to people who need them. In the process, we can help you reduce your overall waste and provide insights to lower your business costs.
The process starts with you filling out our Waste Mapping Survey for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
You can also learn more about how you can support our efforts by signing the Good Waste Charter and joining our WISH network.
Outreach for the vulnerable
We support the vulnerable by holding donated essentials back from public distributions and reserving them for individuals in need. We work closely with refugees, migrants, social prescribers, and other disadvantaged groups that believe reducing our impact on the climate is beyond their reach.
If you or someone you know could use extra help, feel free to let us know online or in person and we will do our best to help you directly or signpost you to other organisations or programmes.
Our collective thoughts
The Cherwell Collective blog
Another lovely year at the Science Wonder Garden Party
For the fourth year in a row, Cherwell Collective was delighted to take part in the Science Wonder Garden Party at Begbroke Science Park on Saturday, 4 July 2026. The…
Migle Didzgalvyte
20th July 2026
Volunteers attend Kidlington Volunteer Celebration
Cherwell Collective volunteers attend celebration for volunteers and organisations throughout Kidlington.
Local MP for Bicester and Woodstock Visits WISH
On Monday morning the team from Cherwell Collective CIC welcomed local MP Calum Miller to our WISH HQ in Kidlington. After touring our facilities and meeting the team and learning…
Victoria Russell
24th March 2026