The Pantry at our Round About Café has been shortlisted for the Travis Perkins Social Value Awards.
Cara Headon, Community Development Officer for Mansbridge, gives us a closer look at the Café’s pantry and it’s benefits on the local community.
As the Community Development Officer for Mansbridge most days I can be found at the Café, listening to the residents, taking on suggestions about what the people enjoy getting involved in and then coming up with activities and projects to support the local community.
What is Social Value Funding (SVF) and how did the Café get involved?
SVF is available for Abri colleagues to apply for projects and funds that will benefit the community. This fund is provided by our external suppliers who have to align with our social value.
Throughout the covid-19 lockdown it became clear that many members of our community suffer from food poverty. So, we established the Community Pantry - a membership-based scheme where community members can purchase their grocery essentials at minimal cost.
The pantry is in high demand, and we had no external funding available to provide support, so we looked at an alternative way to get the best value for members.
We applied for the social value fund to cover the cost of a year’s subscription with FareShare who redistribute good quality surplus food. Each week we receive 200kg of food. Essentials like fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat, frozen food, bread and pastry, packets, jars, and sauces – all of it for our community pantry.
The pantry not only supports the community but also reduces food from going to waste, this year we will have saved 10,000kgs, which is the equivalent weight of an ambulance.
How has the community responded to this support?
I spoke to a few members recently who’ve said The Pantry helps enormously with their weekly budget. Even more, The Pantry functions as a hub for like-minded community members to connect, provide support to one another and feel less isolated.
It is a vital support for the Mansbridge community struggling through this cost of living crisis, whilst also reducing food waste at the same time.
“I don’t use the pantry regularly but on days like today (cold and wet), it is lovely to be able to pick up some useful items to save a tedious trek to do a big shop! It doesn't hurt that it's an excellent opportunity to sit with friends and neighbours and enjoy a hot drink! Thank you for this great local amenity.”
This year we’ve had an increase in weight allowance, because of this we’ve been able to support more people to shop. So far this year members have shopped with us 1,000 times. Already more shops than last financial year.
At our busiest we are supplying 30 households at any one month.
The Pantry’s funding, granted by Travis Perkins, covers the cost of food for the whole year. Enabling us to provide good quality, low-cost food to members. We can see an increase in physical health, are able to support members with the cost of living and help the community with their food budget.