HIGHWORTH COMMUNITY LARDER – ANNUAL RETURN FOR YEAR TO 31[ST] DECEMBER 2025
Highworth Community Larder (HCL) was accepted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in December 2024, Charity Number 1211437. This report has been compiled to meet the Charity Commission’s annual return requirements, and also to provide information to HCL’s supporters and volunteers.
Object and Activities
The Object of HCL is to reduce food waste and provide surplus food to members of the local community, especially those in need. This is achieved primarily by distributing surplus food collected from supermarkets in Highworth and the neighbouring area over the four days prior to the weekly larder, which is held in a room provided cost-free at Westrop Junior School on Tuesday mornings.
The larder operates every week including during the school holidays, but not during the Christmas and New Year holiday weeks; access to the larder is open to all, with no referral necessary. Additionally, food is donated from time to time by local organisations and by supporters with a surplus from their garden or allotment. Occasional purchases are also made for distribution, e.g. at Christmas. Arrangements are in place to pass on perishable items from collections that cannot be distributed through the weekly larder; as a last resort, fruit and vegetables are composted. Surplus non-perishable items from weekly collections are stored for distribution at future larders. During 2025 the larder received a total of 4,731 visitors and distributed a total of 16,464kg on the fifty occasions it was open.
Collectors are asked to make a note of and reject any food offered by supermarkets which is past its Use By date or will be by the date of the next larder; food past its Best Before date is made available at the larder. A notice is displayed at the Larder alerting Best Before date are visitors that all items offered and specifically items beyond their taken at their discretion and a further notice flags up the possibility of allergens in the items offered. Another poster which specifically alerts the potential use of allergenic ingredients in non-packaged bakery products and the possibility of crosscontamination between loose bakery products is displayed by the table in the larder where these products are offered.
Also during 2025, a second activity was started: hosting a monthly drop-in café held on a Wednesday morning in the Town Council meeting room in the centre of Highworth; again, the room is provided without cost.
The above activities are carried out by the six trustees of HCL and currently thirty volunteer helpers.
Financial Report
HCL’s activities rely on collected / donated items and voluntary help. Grants are used to fund specific items required to facilitate operation of the larder, while cash donations are received from time to time, including from visitors to both the larder and the café.
The main items of income and expenditure during 2025 and the funds held by HCL on 31[st] December 2025 were as follows:
| Brought Forward 01/01/25 Income Grants Donations Total Income In Year Expenditure Fridge/Freezers Storage Shed Hi-Vis Vests Trolleys / Collection Bags Special Occasion Purchases Insurance Other Misc Expenditure Total Expenditure In Year Surplus for year Carried Forward 31/12/25 Restricted Funds Unrestricted funds |
£3,325 £584 |
£1,445 £1,870 |
|---|---|---|
| £3,909 £1,023 £110 £166 £230 £194 £101 £215 |
||
| £2,039 | ||
| £3,315 | ||
| £963 £2,352 |
||
| £3,315 |
Apart from a very small cash balance, HCL’s monies are held in an account with Metro Bank; the nature of HCL’s operations and level of funds in hand mean that neither a financial reserves policy nor investments need to be considered by the Trustees either now or for the foreseeable future..
All disbursements are approved by the Treasurer and another officer, usually the Chair. Volunteer collectors can claim mileage expenses for their pick-up journeys; most choose not to do so. No other payments are made to volunteers, or to Trustees other than to reimburse agreed expenditure on items to facilitate HCL’s activities.
A report from the Treasurer on HCL’s finances is submitted and discussed as necessary at the regular Trustee meetings.
Governance
Governance of HCL is the responsibility of the Trustee Board, which comprises the Chair (who is also the Safeguarding Lead), Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and two other Trustees. The Board meets as deemed necessary, usually at intervals of 6-8 weeks. A total of nine Trustee meetings were held during 2025.
Since the beginning of 2025:
-
Role descriptions and/or guidance notes have been agreed and circulated as appropriate to those who act as larder lead, larder helpers and café lead or who undertake supermarket collections
-
Policies for Data Protection and Information Security and Safeguarding have been agreed; the Larder and Café Leads have been asked to report any significant incidents that may occur to the Safeguarding Lead and a log for such incidents has been established.
-
Other governance policies are in place in accordance with the Charity Commission guidelines.
All the above documents will be reviewed annually.
To comply with the requirements of Westrop School, all Trustees and Volunteers who are involved with the running of the weekly larder in the school have completed standard DBS checks.
The Trustee Board has reviewed the Charity Commission’s guidance for making this return and does not believe that any further policies or procedures are currently required for HCL’s activities.
Alison Durrant, Chair of Trustees
11[th] March 2026
Charity Name No (if any) Highworth Community Larder 1211437 Receipts and payments accounts For the period from Period start date17/12/2024 To Period end date31/12/2025
CC16a
Section A Receipts and payments
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Last year to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - OK Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - - - - - When due (optional) Date of approval 11-Mar-2026 11-Mar-2026 12/03/2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance b/f | - | - | - | ||
| Grants | 1,000 | 2,325 | - | 3,325 | - |
| Donations | 584 | - | - | 584 | - |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 1,584 | 2,325 | - | 3,909 | - |
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||
| - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| Sub total | - | - | - | - | - |
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||
| 1,584 | 2,325 | - | 3,909 | - | |
Fridge/Freezers |
- | 1,023 | - | 1,023 | - |
| Storage Shed | - | 110 | - | 110 | - |
| Hi-Vis Vests | 166 | - | 166 | - | |
| Trolleys / Collection Bags | - | 230 | - | 230 | - |
| Special Occasion Purchases | 194 | - | 194 | - | |
| Insurance | 101 | - | - | 101 | - |
| Trustee Expenses | - | - | - | - | - |
| Other Misc Expenditure | 215 | - | - | 215 | - |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| **Sub total ** | 677 | 1,362 | - | 2,039 | - |
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see ~~table)~~ |
|||||
| - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | ||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | - | - | - |
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
|||||
| 677 | 1,362 | - | 2,039 | - | |
| 907 | 963 | - | 1,870 |
- | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1,445 | - | - | 1,445 | - | |
| 2,352 | 963 | - | 3,315 | - | |
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | |||||
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds |
Details | Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
Restricted funds to nearest £ |
||
| Bank | 2,145 | 963 | - | ||
| Cash | 206 | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | |||
| Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details |
2,352 | 963 | - | ||
| OK | OK | ||||
| Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
Restricted funds to nearest £ |
||||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | |||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | |||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| Details | Fund to which liability relates |
Amount due (optional) |
|||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| Signature | Name | ||||
| Date of approval |
|||||
| Alison | Durrant | 11-Mar-2026 | |||
| Rosemary | Crampton | 11-Mar-2026 | |||
| 1 |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)