LEAP - Local Energy Action Plan

22/04/2026

At midday today our Earth Raise campaign gos live! This is a fundraising campaign where all donations will be doubled by The Big Give and go toward the costs of running the Larder and growing food locally. Your support would be very much appreciated - we'll share the link here when we go live.

Massive thanks to the 20 individuals who have signed up for sponsored challenges! Whether you're a Larder Legend Step Challenger or a Hula Hooping Hero we really appreciate your support and engagement. If anyone wants to get involved in some of the fun then there is still time. The campaign runs until Wednesday next week.

Head down to Lochwinnoch Park on Saturday for jewellery making and hula hooping and get invovled in some of the fun.

Our Larder is one of the busiest community food projects in the country. Our service is vital for the people …

27/03/2026

Presenting the Larder Beast Games! We've been inspired by TVs Beast Games and we need your help; can you help us raise sponsorship? For one week in April we will have the chance to double any donations through a campaign with The Big Give. We would love it if you could set yourself a challenge and have some fun while raising some cash. We can support you with your endeavours! More info here: https://www.myleapproject.org/event-details/larder-beast-games

25/02/2026

Tonight! Come on down

Pop in on Wednesday to our Fix & Mend drop-in. 🛠

👉 For full details and to register: https://renfrewshireclimate.scot/events/fix-and-mend-lochwinnoch-feb26

28/01/2026

A look back at our consultation video for our charity shop idea at 1 High Street. More information available here:

https://www.myleapproject.org/post/the-old-bank-a-charity-shop-and-community-space

WANT TO HELP?

We are happy to accept donations from mid-February. If you're having a clear-out and would like to pass things on we are looking for anything saleable such as clothes, homeware, small items of furniture, books, electrical goods, artwork etc. We would also take anything which might be useful for furnishing the shop and meeting room itself such as a small sofa, coffee tables, chairs, garden furniture.

We are also looking for Volunteers! Maybe you would be up for getting involved in the refurb and helping us to set the space up? Or maybe you would be more interested in being involved with sorting donations and manning the till? Either way we would love to hear from you! You can access our volunteering form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd4rpOnIaM4F8Lp4HFM6yw6IzpEhO4VyD-_eTCShe0OeO3jkw/viewform

26/01/2026

We've got news! Many of you already know that for some time we have been looking in to the possibility of taking on The Old Bank to develop it as a charity shop and community hub. Well, today we signed the lease! More info about the project is available below. We would love to hear from anyone who wants to donate, volunteer or partner in any way.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rural Community Led Local Development Fund, and Renfrewshire Council's Villages Investment Fund, for helping us to bring this project to life. Without this funding it just wouldn't be possible. We look forward to taking entry 2nd February and hopefully being ready to open in April.

AN EXCITING UPDATEAs many of you already know, we have been developing the idea for opening a charity shop and community space at The Old Bank in Lochwinnoch. Throughout 2025 we built a business plan, secured some funding and carried out extensive consultation. We're delighted to now announce that w...

18/12/2025

We're so excited to be able to run another Christmas Eve food event. And this year, it will be SO much easier thanks to Robert McLeish and Lochwinnoch Community Annexe; they have given us use of the space free so we can handle what will be large quantities of surplus food. Here is what you need to know:

We don't know exactly what to expect, but we suggest arriving from 5 pm as that's when we think food will be available from. Come to the Annexe.
Collections will come in over the space of a couple of hours. You're welcome to come down and enjoy some festive cheer while we work through the collections. There will be space for people to wait in the dry.
All the food we're distributing is surplus from supermarkets and is otherwise going in the bin.
We cannot guarantee what we'll get. We're pretty sure there will be A LOT of veg and bread, but we're also hoping for other high value items such as meat joints, turkeys, whole salmon, puddings and canapés too - fingers crossed.
Food is free but we will happily accept cash or card based donations for anyone who is in a position to leave something. This really helps the project if so. But it is optional.

If you're not yet a member of of the Larder you can sign up here; https://forms.gle/o7ZcRJiYWr74b7dr9

Please share and remind others of our location - LOCHWINNOCH COMMUNITY ANNEXE.

24/11/2025

We will be having our AGM at 7.30pm on Tuesday 2nd December at the LEAP Community Co-Work Space, 39 High Street, Lochwinnoch.

If you'd like to have a say in the future of a local, active, charity you can, as we are actively seeking passionate new board members. Board Membership is a voluntary role and, whilst important, not too onerous.

Benefits of board membership include discounted use of LEAP Car Club.

If you've benefited from LEAP's activities, or just are interested to find out more, we'd love you to come along and chat to us about the possibility of joining at the AGM or contact us at
[email protected].

Thanks
LEAP Board

06/10/2025

02/10/2025

We're please to share results of the Community Consultation we did earlier this year on the proposal for the Old Bank building at 1 High Street. We hope to have more good news to share soon about the next stages for this project.

OverviewIn early 2025 we engaged external consultants to carry out feasibility for us on whether it could be viable to take on a disused retail space and turn it in to a charity shop with flex event space and commercial kitchen for pop-up eatery events. We approached this with three questions:The fi...

01/10/2025

We've been doing a bit of analysis on last year's spending and have put this report in the public domain today. It shows how LEAP spent over £120k with local businesses in 2024/25 financial year, with LEAP Together's spending accounting for £59k of that total. This is a significant sum which speaks to our commitment to supporting the local economy.

More detail here:

At LEAP, our charitable aims focus on making a positive impact on environment, community and wellbeing, but the work we do has a number of secondary benefits for the local community. We analysed what LEAP as a whole spent with local businesses and economy across the 2024/25 financial year - this cam...