The SEK Community Food Shop opened in Chatham's Pentagon Centre on 5 October. Any Medway resident can shop: £1 fruit and veg bags, no referral or membership.

Chatham’s community supermarket is open. The SEK Community Food Shop opened its doors on Monday 5 October on the first floor of the Pentagon Shopping Centre.

Anyone who lives in Medway can shop there. You do not need a referral, a voucher or a membership card. Medway Council confirmed the opening on the day.

We reported the plan when it was announced in August. This is what has actually opened.

What is on the shelves

The council says the shop sells good-quality food at affordable prices, including £1 bags of fruit and vegetables. Part of the stock is surplus food that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Social Enterprise Kent’s page for the shop lists the range:

  • fresh fruit and vegetables
  • store cupboard essentials
  • chilled and frozen food
  • household items
  • seasonal products and special offers

It describes the shop as not-for-profit. It works “much like any other supermarket”, the organisation says, but with a different purpose.

Inside the SEK Community Food Shop in Chatham: crates of fresh fruit and vegetables along the left wall, shelves of packaged food and breakfast cereals, and a chiller cabinet on the right.
Fruit, vegetables, cupboard food and a chiller inside the shop. Photo: Medway Council

Help with bills, not just food

The shop has a community space where council and partner services will offer advice. The council lists help with budgeting, energy costs and financial support.

Social Enterprise Kent says a community coordinator will work in the shop. It also plans to bring local organisations in regularly. The support it lists covers:

  • money, budgeting and household bills
  • benefits and financial wellbeing
  • employment support
  • digital skills and getting online
  • health and wellbeing
  • energy and water saving advice
  • volunteering

“No complicated referrals,” the organisation says. “Just practical support when you need it.”

Who runs it and who paid

Social Enterprise Kent runs the shop. The start-up money came from the council’s Crisis and Resilience Fund, which is government money the council distributes. The shop sign also carries the Medway Food Partnership.

Rebecca Smith, chief executive of Social Enterprise Kent, said: “For us, this is about choice and dignity. Everyone should be able to access affordable food.”

Cllr Vince Maple, the council leader, thanked the volunteers who helped get the space ready.

A plaque in the shop is dedicated to James Williams, Medway’s late director of public health. The healthy living centre next door, which opened in March, also carries his name.

Opening hours

Neither the council nor Social Enterprise Kent had published the Chatham shop’s opening hours when we checked on Wednesday 7 October. The organisation’s Facebook page for the shop is the most likely place for them to appear first. We will add them here when they are published.

What it means for you

  • Who can use it: any Medway resident. No referral, no membership.
  • Where: first floor of the Pentagon Shopping Centre, Chatham, next to the James Williams Healthy Living Centre.
  • What it costs: Social Enterprise Kent says its prices are lower than usual; a bag of fruit and veg is £1.
  • If money is tight right now: the council’s financial support page lists crisis payments and other help. Some of it can be applied for without going through the shop.
  • Driving in: our parking in Medway page has the council car park charges.