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A new community supermarket has opened in Chatham’s Pentagon Centre, providing affordable and healthy food options along with support services like employment assistance and budgeting help. Funded by Medway Council through the Crisis and Resilience Fund, the store aims to reduce food waste while offering budget-friendly groceries such as a £1 fruit and vegetable bag. SEK Community Food Shop also operates two other similar stores in Kent that collectively saved 170 tonnes of food from going to waste last year.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-06,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
A new community supermarket called SEK Community Food Shop opened on 21 September at The Pentagon Centre in Chatham, Kent. The store offers affordable food to combat food insecurity while also reducing waste by redistributing surplus food. Gina English from SEK stated that the shop, funded initially by Medway Council through the Crisis and Resilience Fund, is open to everyone and provides additional services such as employment support, CV review, interview skills training, budgeting advice, and referrals to other local services.
SEK already operates two similar stores in Kent: one in Ramsgate for about three years and another in Ashford for over a year. These shops recorded 55,500 transactions last year alone and saved 170 tonnes of food from being wasted. Initial visitors like Shirley Graves and Rod Taffs have praised the store's offerings, describing it as an "amazing" resource with affordable groceries such as a £1 fruit and vegetable bag available to all without prior booking.
Written for “New Supermarket Opens” on 2026-10-06,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted
verbatim and was checked against the article text before being
stored, so you can find it in the original.
Leaning: leans left for article 59243 (high confidence, 2 verified quotes) · logged 2026-10-06
Claims extracted
11
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
0%
0 of 11 hedged
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Correction & hedging signals
72.1
corrections and hedging in what we collected;
not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
1
Economy/Business
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
- Published
A new community supermarket offering access to affordable and healthy food has opened in a Kent shopping centre.
asserted
supermarket → publish → centre
The store run by SEK Community Food Shop welcomed the public to its home on the first floor of The Pentagon Centre in Chatham.
asserted
store → run → Chatham
Gina English from SEK says the shop is open to all as "in addition to supporting people with food insecurity, people will also be able get wraparound support from us, help with employment, looking at CVs and interview skills.
asserted
people → say → CVs
We're also going to help people with budgeting and money management and signposting to other local services".
asserted
We → go → services
Initial funding to set up the supermarket was provided by Medway Council through the Crisis and Resilience Fund.
asserted
funding → set → Fund
Shoppers can walk straight into the social supermarket, with no prior booking required, to access a wealth of budget-friendly groceries, including a £1 fruit and vegetable bag.
asserted
booking → walk → bag
Cost are kept low as the store redistributes surplus food to reduce waste, helping to protect the environment at the same time.
SEK already operates two similar stores in Kent.
English said: "We've had Ramsgate for about three years, Ashford just for just over a year and across the two shops in the last year alone we saw 55,500 transactions and we were able to save 170 tonnes of perfectly good food from going to waste, so they do work."
Some of the first to experienced the store were Shirley Graves and her partner Rod Taffs who have already filled their basket with bargains.
"People want to come down and see what they've got, it's amazing," says Graves.
asserted
Graves → keep → what
"I've got a box of 20 samosas for £1.50 and a big huge bag of chicken for £6.
asserted
I → get → 6
"
"That's going to do us three or four meals," adds Taffs.
asserted
Taffs → go → meals
Medway Council leader, Vince Maple, said: "I think most people across Kent and Medway would want to see food not going to waste, so the ability to have good quality food at a reasonable price, helping not just our families and individuals on low incomes but helping all families has got to be a good thing."
asserted
ability → say → families
The shop also has a confidential, soundproofed office pod at the back of the store where customers can seek personal advice and guidance.
asserted
customers → have → advice
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