Bolton Road Community Pantry
What’s Happening in the Pantry?
The Community Pantry, which celebrated its second anniversary in May, is currently helping to support 34 local households, amounting to over 100 people in total. In addition, on occasions, we provide one-off emergency food packs when requested.
The weekly charge for a shop remains at £3 and we are open every Thursday morning from 9am to 12.30, although several members prefer to shop on a Wednesday morning when we are setting up for the following day. This is helpful as Thursday mornings, especially the first hour and a half, can become extremely busy!
We continue to work in partnership with Porch, and we are very grateful for the generous donations of money, food, clothes and household items from the church family and other friends of the Pantry. Tottington and Bury West Rotary have also supplied some funding and our own fund raising events have been very successful. A big thank you to everyone who supports these events (the next one will be on Saturday 27th July- details soon).
One very exciting development over the last few months has been to witness the growing sense of "community" among our members. Many are staying for a while to enjoy refreshments in the lounge, chatting with us and one another, sharing news and views, offering help and advice. Many of them want to give something back to the Pantry- by offering to help out at events, by making items to raise funds and by donating pre-loved toys and clothes. Many of our members have also been able to access help and advice on matters such as debt management, housing and health from representatives of various organisations who visit the Pantry on a regular basis. We now have a Social Prescriber available every Thursday morning.
Our aim for the future is to continue to be here to help support struggling families. We are planning to hold more fund raising events, and we want to continue developing the garden to grow more fruit and vegetables for the Pantry. We are also hoping to access any available grants.
Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, donations and attendance at our fund raising events, all of which are so vital to the continuing work of the Pantry.
Porch Boxes – Bury Food Bank provides crisis packs of food and toiletries to local agencies to distribute to local people in urgent need. Read more about their work and how to donate at: Porch Boxes – Bury Food Bank – Providing food packs for the needy (wordpress.com)
