Our 2020 Christmas & New Year Opening Hours

With a number of suppliers taking a break from trading across Christmas, plus both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day falling on Fridays, our last week for orders in 2020 will start 8am Friday 11th Dec for delivery/collection on the 18th Dec. We will then be closed for two weeks, opening again for orders on Fri the 1st January 2021 8am for delivery/collection on the 8th Jan.

Shop Local This Christmas

Recent new suppliers include gluten and nut free Melissamo’s bakery (who are currently working on changing over from single-use plastic packaging) and Marrows with their two seasonal veg boxes, plus we also have had a welcome return for Golden Sheep Coffee, our local Stroud roaster and SDAP plastic free champion.

The product ranges we offer from some of our local suppliers have also increased in time for the festive season. These include; Loose (many more products and larger sizes), Godsells Cheese (double the number of cheeses), Woodchester Valley Wines (try some of their excellent Reserve Cuvee to bring the sparkle to your eyes), Stroud Valley Project (loads of sustainable household items), Maryanne’s Bakes and Preserves (a panoply of festive bakes and treats), and Artisan Jack (a much bigger choice including whole free-range chickens and beef brisket).

Plus keep an eye out for the following local suppliers who we will soon be welcoming onto our shop…. A fabulous range of the Welsh Cake Lady’s baked goods (including gluten free), a choice of beeswax wraps (say no to clingfilm), natural handmade soaps by Soap Folk, delicious fresh and frozen meals from Woodruffs, plus pay what you can Long Table meals with one of their Freezers of Love now also operating from the porch of our home at the Trinity Rooms!

We certainly recommend you spending some time extra time on our shopfront discovering all the wonderful goodies we have to offer over the remaining weeks we are open this year, however here are just a few of our top Stroudco Christmas search suggestions to start you off:

Gift Bags by Soap Folk
Woodchester Valley Vineyards Reserve Cuvee
Christmas Greeting Cards by local artist Rachel Beckett
Gift Baskets, festive cupcakes, Dundee cake, and mince pies from Maryanne
Festive Goodie Bags from the Welsh Cake Lady
Seed and Bean Chocolate, Faith By Nature Shampoo/Conditioner, Ginger Cordial, Nut Butters and dairy-free cream/milks (ethically sourced, natural, eco friendly, organic via Essential Trading)
Ingredients for homebaking plastic free from Loose (their various teas also make a great tea lovers gift)
Golden Sheep Coffee for the coffee lovers instead.

Our 2020 Journey

It has been a year of change for many and here at Stroudco that has certainly been the case as March 2020 saw us speeding up our summer planned re-launch in response to the pandemic. With the generous help of Hawkwood College we were able to set up a temporary COVID safe base from which to operate, with the help of Stroudco Founders Nick and Carol, until we could find a long-term location.

We introduced new manager, Grace, and welcomed many new volunteers to our team. We also moved into a new permanent home at the Trinity Rooms in Stroud – a joint community hub shared with local groups and organisations working in partnership as the Trinity Rooms Community Hub (TRCH – more on this later).

As a result of all the help and support of so many, we were delighted to be named as one of Stroud’s Lockdown Heroes earlier this year for the support we provided to the local community during the pandemic.

“Our friendly local delivery system is great for those who are self-isolating; we can drop off boxes one week and collect them the next; able to access narrow lanes that many larger delivery vehicles often struggle with” – Stroudco Director, James

Finally, on behalf of Stroudco, its suppliers and customers we raised £1,500 donations for Stroud District Food Bank across the two UK lockdowns – a fantastic achievement that will provide help for many.

“We are grateful to all those supporters who enable us to make considerable donations to the local Food Bank throughout the year” – Stroudco Director, James

The Trinity Rooms Community Hub

Discover more about the exciting developments happening at Stroudco with the creation of the Trinity Rooms Community Hub as Stroudco Director James discusses how being a part of forming community networks, with the aim of supporting the district, was key in us choosing to make the building our new permanent home.

We have settled into the Trinity Rooms on Field Road, opposite the Hospital. It is a fine old building with plenty space for our packing and re-boxing to take place safely with social distancing for our busy teams of volunteers. It is easy to collect from too, if you would prefer that rather than us deliver your order to your door.

We share the premises with a number of other like-minded organisations who share our aims to create a community food hub: Landwise, the Stroud Community Seed Bank, the Earth Protector Community and Compassionate Stroud. Plans are jointly underway to create workshops, events, and training. We hope to be able to eventually create a kitchen cafe too, carrying out the food, cooking, hygiene, and other training needed for this. It is certainly an exciting time for Stroudco so watch this space in the New Year!

We will be open for orders 8am Friday to 8am Wednesday each week.
Each Friday we will deliver directly to your door or you can collect by arrangement following the strict collections process in place.
All the necessary safety measures are in place to protect our customers, volunteers, suppliers, and manager Grace.

Please check out our social media pages for updates. We love hearing from you on social media so please tag us in your comments, tweets, posts, pics, & shares, including #stroudco to help spread the word of what we do.

We also welcome any feedback you may like to share and hope you will continue to shop with us in future weeks! A final BIG Thank You from all of us on the Stroudco Team for being such a vital part of our community and supporting what we do.

For help with a particular issue or query please email manager@stroudco.co.uk

More updates to come in our next newsletter so get following our social media and subscribing to our newsletters by entering your email in the subscribe box on our website contact page to be added to our mailing list today….

Past Newsletters

Nov/Dec 2020, October 2020, September 2020, August 2020, J uly 2020,