A NEW community pantry has opened in Frome to provide affordable food and support for residents in need.
Fair Frome’s latest project supports those experiencing food insecurity, tackles food waste and provides dignity and choice to those accessing their services. The community pantry runs out of the Fair Frome Elliot building at the Frome Town Hall once a week on a Tuesday. This is a membership only service with members signing up to access support for six months.
Unlike the food bank, in which people must get a referral to access the service, households will be able to complete the registration themselves. The low-cost membership of just £3 or £5 a week allows members to choose how much they can spend each week giving people flexibility and choice.
Fair Frome coordinator Rosie Oakley said, “We are excited to open our community pantry and we trust that we can offer people much needed extra support. As well as providing food for members we will also be able to offer wrap-around signposting to other services too.”
This project also supports producers and growers in the local area too as the organisation tries to supply as much of the produce from local businesses as possible.
“The project aims to support people who are currently struggling in our community with sustainable and longer-term support paths,” added Rosie. “Fair Frome has seen a huge increase in the number of people who are accessing our services because of the cost-of-living crisis and the current economic climate. People are really struggling in Frome. We are noticing that people who access our services are needing more long-term support as the rising costs of living mean households are struggling to survive each month”.
Coordinator Lenka Grimes added, “As well as the food bank, at Fair Frome we also run the furniture bank, baby basics bank, Food at Five, Holiday Hunger and financial assistance scheme. However, it was becoming clear that there was a need in Frome for a more sustainable food support project that tackled food insecurity. We are confident that the new Fair Frome community pantry will do just that.”
If you are interested in donating surplus produce to the pantry contact: pantry@fairfrome.org
To sign up to the Fair Frome Community Pantry or to find out more about the project just go to: https://fairfrome.org/communitypantry/ alternatively email pantry@fairfrome.org