Leiston Pantry calls on food businesses for help keeping up with demand

A community supermarket has called for support from food businesses, after spending up to £1,200 a week to stock its shelves.

The Leiston Pantry, Suffolk, provides food for 600 families in need for as little as £4 a week.

The project relies on donations, while working with local foodbanks, but is struggling to keep up with demand.

Co-director Toby Lindsay-White said rural areas require a "more coordinated distribution of goods".

Mr Lindsay-White said although private donations are helping, local access to surplus goods and customer donations from supermarket chains is limited because most goes to regional distribution hubs.

"People are unaware that food will travel another 100 miles and end up in a city centre, instead of staying where it's donated," he said.

"There are distribution centres in Ipswich and Lowestoft but we don't see any of that. We are having to spend £1,000 per week on average on stock and as more organisations are set up, the availability of food is going to decrease even more.''

The pantry currently receives 200kg of food each week from national charity FareShare but Mr Lindsay-White would like to see an "operational framework" set-up between local organisations, such as food banks, community fridges and social supermarkets.

"We need to operate as a network with a single distribution point for locally sourced goods in our area," he said.

He also hoped local authorities and the government would put legislation into place that would prevent excess food from going to landfill.

One customer, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "Life is such a struggle at the moment. There have been times where we've been hungry and now I've found this place, we're not going hungry.

"We can eat three or four times a week, rather than not eating... it's horrible, so this service means the world to me."

The community pantry is part of Project40Seven, which provides a number of local services to vulnerable people, including a uniform exchange and tool loans through their 'library of things'.

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