Crowdfunded Southsea shop Package Free Larder secures premises after raising almost £44,000

The team behind The Package Free Larder has raised enough money to open up a shop and has secured premises in Southsea.

The Package Free Larder will open in Elm Grove in a unit that was previously occupied by Green Machine CBD shop in April.

The group of around eight volunteers have picked up the keys to the unit and are hard at work using the donations to clean up and renovate before its official opening.

By August 2019, hundreds of donors helped to raise £43,765 towards the crowdfunder - nearly £4,000 over the initial target.

Ashleigh Edwards, 28, who is a volunteer with the shop said: ‘We were so excited. It’s coming up to a year since we were planning to launch the crowdfunder and it seems like ages. The last few months have been quite slow because we wanted to find the perfect place, which we definitely have, so it’s super exciting.’

Split across two floors, the ground floor will be used as the shop, while the lower-ground floor will be used as a community hub, inviting in people from across the city to take part in workshops such as eco-friendly deodorant and soap making.

Ashleigh said: ‘We wanted it to be by the community, for the community, which is why we thought it would be great for everyone to have a space to take part in workshops.’

The initiative was set up in 2019 by Zero Waste Portsmouth, headed by 38-year-old Delphine Laveyne.

The team is on the lookout for environmentally-passionate volunteers to help with the run-up to the shop’s opening and people to run the shop once it opens.

The shop, which is run by the community for the community, will sell groceries that can be weighed and taken home by customers in their own packaging that they will bring with them.

Organisations such as Victorious Festival and Love Southsea have supported the campaign, with 905 donors contributing to the fundraising target, which was raised in just 56 days.