East Hants Community Rail Partnership has celebrated the first birthday of its Free Shop Friday, at South Western Railway’s Petersfield station.

The Community Rail Partnership, which covers Liphook to Rowlands Castle stations, aims to see waste reduced by redistributing to local people food that might otherwise have been destined for the bin.

Lucy Lomax runs the scheme, which cannot operate during the pandemic, but she has been working hard at carrying on collecting donations and had passed them on to other charities.

Lucy was, prior to lockdown, presented with the Town Mayor’s award in recognition of her support for the local community.

The scheme quickly proved a success with locals, and it even began operating on Saturdays in response to demand.

East Hants CRP, funded annually by SWR, and other local partners, set up the Free Shop Friday project working out of its hub at Petersfield station.

What did the officials say?

SWR’s Community Rail Manager, Andy Harrowell said:

“Free Shop Friday has become a key part of East Hants CRP support for the Petersfield community, and we’re pleased to be able to continue to support this through funding the CRP and providing the space for the work. Happy Birthday and here’s to supporting more people in the future.”

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