Social Supermarket Support - Screening

The Department has been running a Social Supermarket (SSM) Pilot Programme since October 2017. This was in response to a recommendation in the Welfare Reform Mitigations Report (Evason Report) completed in January 2016 that sought to mitigate the impact of UK-wide welfare reforms in Northern Ireland. This report highlighted that ‘Stormont should pilot strategies to tackle food poverty, potentially through a network of community food shops, social stores and supermarkets’. DFC had access to Welfare Mitigation Funds (running to 2020) on foot of this report to implement this recommendation alongside a host of measures to support those impacted by welfare reform / benefit arrangements.