Farmborough Community Shop

Supporting our village and local community

Resident ‘royal’ and local celebrity open community shop

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Committee, volunteers, and local figures celebrate the opening of the shop

The Management Committee would like to thank everyone who came to Farmborough Community Shop’s Grand Opening and Garden Party on Sunday 15 July. We had a great time and hope you did too!

Special thanks must go to all the volunteers who turned up to help on the day, Patience Barnes and the school children who officially opened the shop and in particular Nola Francis for acting as our resident ‘royal’ at the opening ceremony, as well as the shop’s ambassador Anthony Head who took some time out of his busy schedule to attend the event and browse the shop.

Anthony Head samples the coffee and cakes

It was a memorable occasion and as Mark Swabey, our chairman, noted in his speech, “We look forward to the shop supporting the community, as the community supports the shop, so that everyone enjoys shopping here, the social interactions, and the satisfaction of making our village work as a vibrant community.”

See our Facebook page @FarmboroughShop for more pictures of the event.

Our next fundraising events will be:

  • The Pig ‘n’ Perry at The Rec on Saturday 4 August from 3-7pm
  • The Big Family Apple Day at the Shop and Memorial Hall Garden on Saturday 29 September from 12-4pm

We are opening!

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We are pleased to announce that Farmborough Community Shop will be opening its doors for the first time on Saturday 30 June at 10am. We will also be holding a garden party to celebrate the official opening of the shop on Sunday 15 July.

Farmborough Community Shop will be here to support our village and the local community by providing:
• Groceries and local produce
• A coffee shop and takeaway
• A village hub and meeting space

Provisional opening hours:
Monday·······8am-6.30pm
Tuesday·······8am-6.30pm
Wednesday·8am-6.30pm
Thursday·····8am-6.30pm
Friday··········8am-6.30pm
Saturday·········10am-1pm
Sunday···············CLOSED
Opening hours may be subject to change

We hope to be able to extend the weekday opening hours and also open on Sundays in the future, but will only be able to do so with more volunteers. If you can spare some time to help, please contact Chris Bullock by email, call 01761 471 811 or download the newsletter.

Volunteers needed!

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Farmborough Community Shop is planning to open in June 2018.

Once open, it will offer an essential service to many people, providing not only groceries but a place to meet and socialise and will quickly become an integral part of our village community. Our volunteers will be essential to the success of the shop.

We will be operating a rota system of up to five shifts per day. We estimate that most of our volunteers will work one shift a week, although some may choose to do two or even three.  Some may prefer to work once a fortnight or even once a month. We will do our best to be flexible and will try to accommodate everyone’s wishes, but we will need around 50-60 people on our volunteer list to make this possible.

How can you help?

Working behind the till is just one way of helping the shop.  Other ways of helping include:

  • Receiving deliveries from our main suppliers and re-stocking the shelves.
  • Serving coffee, tea and cakes in the coffee shop or just help with the till and clearing up.
  • Baking cakes for our coffee shop.
  • Maintenance work, for example, carpentry, plumbing, electrical work and odd jobs.
  • Volunteer support, offering help, guidance and peer support to new and existing volunteers.
  • Researching new products we might stock.
  • Occasional shopping trips to replenish stocks.
  • Behind the scenes and professional help, e.g. banking, accounting and bookkeeping, legal and policy documentation, or human resources.
  • Helping with computer skills.

Whatever skill or interest our volunteers have, we will welcome and appreciate all offers of help. 

Volunteers need to be over the age of 15 but there is no upper age limit. Volunteers can be of all ages and include students working towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award, people in full-time employment who can only help out at weekends, as well as the ‘active retired’. If you would like to join the team please complete our volunteer application form.

For further information, please visit our volunteer page or contact us if you have any questions.