St Aidan's Pantry, Speke
St Aidan’s church in Speke have launched a new food pantry, with volunteers welcoming 33 households through their doors on their first day.
This is the latest addition to the Your Pantry network in the Diocese of Liverpool and was set up at the start of the year with support from Together Liverpool, through our Food Insecurity Lead Executive Naomi Maynard, and our partners St Andrew’s Community Network.
The team have converted their store room, where they previously hosted a foodbank, into the pantry shop space.
The pantry follows the same format as others in the network, with members receiving a weekly shop of ten items, worth around £20, for a fee of £3.50 each week - including fresh fruit and vegetables, and items from St Aidan's fridge and freezers.
Together Liverpool Food Insecurity Lead Executive Naomi Maynard said: "Our hope is that pantries such as St Aidan's will not only help reduce food household bills, but be spaces which bring community together where new friendships are formed."
Vicar at the Parish of St Aidan with All Saints Churches in Speke Phil Saltmarsh told us why St Aidan’s wanted to start a pantry, he said: “At the beginning of lockdown we recognised that there were lots of people in the community who were struggling with food insecurity.
“We have responded and helped people with food as much as we can we felt that the kind of longer term sustainable solution to that was a food pantry.
“We looked into another couple of other models such as St George’s Pantry and we were just really excited about it, so we approached Naomi at Together Liverpool and from there we were able to work together in partnership with Together Liverpool and St Andrew’s network to open St Aidan’s Pantry in Speke.
“So it’s been really good, it’s been really exciting. Everyone who’s come through the door has spoken about how positive it is and what a good thing it is.”
St Aidan's Pantry is now up and running every Tuesday morning from 9am – midday.
Curate at the parish Rev Gareth Morgan said at the end of the first day: “It’s been great we’ve had a steady flow of people through all morning. We’ve had 33 new members sign up, they’ve all loved it. The feedback’s been really good, so we are looking forward to carrying on each week and seeing how many more people get to know about it.”
Your Local Pantry is a network of community food stores, creating a sustainable and long-term solution to food poverty and helping the UK save money on their food bills and is run by a partnership between Foundations Stockport and Church Action on Poverty.