A NEW scheme has been launched in Andover to help people afford food and warm drinks.

Andover Pay it Forward allows people to buy food and drink at coffee shops that other people can then claim at no cost.

The scheme is being facilitated by St Mary's Church.

Reverend Lauren Cheshire explained: “You can go in and purchase something, say a sandwich or a drink or whatever you want, and it’s put on a post-it note with the receipt on a chalkboard or a magnet board or whatever the cafe has decided to do.

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“And then people can come in and they can ask what’s on the board and they can claim something back.”

Revd Cheshire added that the scheme is “something that can be used quite flexibly," adding: “What we’re trying to do is that agencies who work with people can go to one of those places and say, ‘I’m here with so-and-so, can I claim one of the coffees back?’”

The scheme currently includes No. 78 Speciality Coffee and The Travelling Cupcake, both located on High Street, with Coffee#1 currently in talks to join the scheme.

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The scheme has only recently launched but Revd Cheshire said that St Mary’s would like to keep it going, saying: “This is part of a wider conversation around how do we have an intelligent system around food in Andover?”

She continued: “We’ve got connections with food partners, but we don’t really have them with local businesses, we don’t really have them with some of the smaller food distributions, we don’t have them with the bigger ones like Asda and Sainsbury’s and things because they do national food surplus programmes.

“So what we’re trying to do is work out how do you do it sensibly in Andover, and how do you do it in a way that not everyone is accessing one provider and it’s all a bit messy?

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“But we’re all working together to make sure that the people who need it most are getting the food."

For more information about Andover Pay it Forward and how to get involved, email hello@stmarysandover.org.

Alternatively, more information can also be found by visiting stmarysandover.org/lighthouse.