The food shop has moved into a new unit behind The Hub, paid for by a £43,095 rural grant. It opens Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am to 1pm.
Cambourne’s community food shop is now trading from its own building, a modular unit behind The Hub Community Centre on High Street. It was paid for with a grant of £43,095 that Cambourne Town Council won from the Rural England Prosperity Fund. (South Cambridgeshire District Council, 17 September 2026)
The shop keeps the same hours in its new home. It opens Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am to 1pm, and is closed on bank holidays and over Christmas. (Hope Against Poverty)
It is run by Hope Against Poverty CIC, the organisation the council calls Hope CIC. The shop started in October 2021, after the pandemic and during the rise in living costs, and until now had operated inside The Hub itself.
What the shop sells
Everything is priced below the retail price, and some items are free. It takes cash or card. Hope Against Poverty lists the stock as:
- cereal, pasta, rice, noodles and canned food
- sauces, condiments, milk and milk substitutes, tea, coffee and juice
- fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and chilled items, donated by local supermarkets, so the range changes each week
- household cleaning products
- personal hygiene, menstrual and incontinence products
- baby and infant products
There is a second Hope Against Poverty service in the same building. The Community Hub runs on Fridays, 9.30am to 12.30pm, opposite the shop, with hot and cold drinks, toast and fruit, and advice on where to get help with bills and food. (Hope Against Poverty)
Eleven months from a hole in the ground
Cambourne Town Council has published its own month-by-month record of the build, and it is more detailed than the announcement. (Cambourne Town Council)
- October 2025. The town council submitted a planning application for the unit, describing it as a central space for community support that would start as a food bank.
- March 2026. Town council ground staff dug out and laid the foundations themselves.
- April 2026. The body of the building arrived on a lorry and was craned onto the foundations, then levelled to leave room for a ramp.
- May 2026. Ramps went in at the entrances, with the ground prepared and gradients set for wheelchairs, pushchairs and people with limited mobility.
- June 2026. The council advertised for an operator.
The town council’s spokesperson acknowledged the wait in the council’s announcement. “While it took longer than originally anticipated, we remained committed to delivering the best possible outcome,” they said. “The wait has been worthwhile.”
The operator was picked through a public tender
The June advert is a public document. Cambourne Town Council posted notice CTC/POPUP on Contracts Finder on 2 June 2026, looking for “an experienced registered Charity or Community Interest Company (CIC) to occupy and operate from its new building”. (Contracts Finder)
The notice sets out:
- a value of £15,000 to £20,000
- a deadline of 1pm on 25 June 2026
- a contract running 8 July 2026 to 8 July 2027
- bidders needing proven experience of food bank or food insecurity work, safeguarding and governance procedures, and two references
The council said at the time it hoped a longer contract could be agreed in 2027. No award notice has been published against that tender, so the contract’s final value is not on the public record. The district council’s announcement names Hope CIC as the operator.
Hope Against Poverty CIC was registered as a community interest company on 6 November 2020 and is listed as active, with nine current directors. Its founder, Mahesh Hettiarachchi, has been a director since the day it was set up.
Where the £43,095 came from
The grant is Rural England Prosperity Fund money, from the 2024/25 application round. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority was the lead authority and South Cambridgeshire District Council handed out the grants locally. The programme has now finished.
South Cambridgeshire’s entire allocation from that fund was £350,376. The Cambourne shop took about an eighth of it.
Not all of the district could bid. The council’s own page lists areas that were ineligible in whole or in part, including Fulbourn, Stapleford, Great Shelford, Milton, South Girton, Orchard Park and Kings Hedges.
Cllr Dr Lisa Redrup, the district council’s lead cabinet member for healthy communities, called the shop “one of Cambourne’s real success stories”. Cllr Helene Leeming, a district councillor for Cambourne, said the opening was “an important investment in both the future of the High Street and the wellbeing of the local community”.
The post office question is still open
When the town council applied for planning permission in October 2025, it said the building might house a post office in future, subject to review and an application.
Cambourne still has no permanent post office. A Post Office van visits The Hub Community Centre car park twice a week, on Mondays from 1.30pm to 4pm and Wednesdays from 12.30pm to 4pm, and does not run on public holidays. The town council says it “continues to work to find a solution for a permanent Post Office in Cambourne”. (Cambourne Town Council)
Nothing published so far commits the new unit to taking that on.
What it means for you
- The shop is at The Hub Community Centre, High Street, Cambourne, CB23 6GW, in the unit at the rear. Open Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am to 1pm.
- Prices are below retail and some items are free. Cash and card are both accepted.
- The fresh food is donated, so what is on the shelves varies week to week.
- If you want company and advice rather than shopping, the Community Hub runs on Friday mornings, 9.30am to 12.30pm, in the same building.
- The Post Office van is in the same car park on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.
- The operator’s contract runs to 8 July 2027 as advertised. Anything beyond that has not been decided in public.
For other money going into village projects this autumn, see our report on the September Community Chest round and on grant support across the district. Practical Cambourne information is on our pages for bin collection days, council tax bands and planning applications.
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