Two Salisbury pantries join forces in call for volunteers
Your Salisbury Pantry and the Pantry Partnership work to help feed local people
Two Salisbury pantry organisations are working together to help feed local people, and are both calling for more volunteers to join them.
Your Salisbury Pantry is a social supermarket on Catherine Street, where members on low incomes pay a nominal fee to do their food shop at a lower cost than a 'normal' grocery store.
They're currently supporting 75 to 90 households every week.
The Pantry Partnership has been running for over 10 years from the former Bowls Club at Victoria Park.
They aim to save surplus food from going into the bin, by bringing people together to cook and share food, particularly those who are isolated in our community.
One of The Pantry Partnership’s projects enables volunteers to come together to cook, chill and freeze meals made from surplus which Your Salisbury Pantry stocks in their freezers for their clients.
One of the Leaders of Salisbury City Council, Cllr Victoria Charleston, said:
“Your Salisbury Pantry is a fantastic scheme which can only operate with the help of the amazing volunteers. Whether they are a Van Driver, Shop Assistant or Donations Assistant, volunteers play a fantastic and vital role in supporting the community and helping members get the food that they need. With flexible hours available, we are always grateful for those who can spare some time at the social supermarket.”
Fiona Ollerhead, Founder and Director of The Pantry Partnership, said:
“We are always looking for brilliant volunteers to help us in our kitchen - general support and washers up always welcome, and if you’re a chef we’d love to bring you on board to help out too. We have all sorts of roles where you can practice or lend out your skills and one of the most important things for us is making sure volunteers have a great time when they come to us.
"We’ve just finished doing cooking workshops at Bemerton St Michael’s and have more to come as well as ongoing similar events with other groups in the next few months, we continue to make our healthy nutritious frozen meals (made available via the social supermarket), our surplus jams and pickles can be found for sale at the Tourist Information Office and we also do catering for community and corporate events – all made from surplus by our brilliant volunteers.”
You can support the Pantry Partnership by emailing info@thepantrypartnership.org or Your Salisbury Pantry by emailing salisburypantry@salisburycitycouncil.gov.uk