The UK’s community food pantries are now saving members millions of pounds every year, and becoming places of neighbourhood transformation, a new report shows today.
Your Local Pantry, which supports 121 Pantries across all four UK nations, today publishes its Places of Hope report, looking at the impact the food hubs are having.
It shows that:
- Pantries have saved members £5.76m in the past year, and £10.5m in the past two years.
- Members are having a greater say in how Pantries are run, such as through steering groups, or member-volunteer roles.
- Pantries are becoming central to community life in many areas, linking with other local opportunities and services, and sparking new friendships and relationships.
One Pantry coordinator said: “We have created a community who cares. We are more than just a place to buy food.”
Another said: “Whilst people value the affordable food, it is the community that keeps people coming back.”
The number of Pantries has risen by a fifth over the past year, from 100 to 121. Since the first Pantries opened in 2013, more than 120,000 people in 44,000 households have benefited from membership, from Edinburgh to Ebbw Vale, from Portadown to Portsmouth. Since 2022, the expansion of the network has been supported by The Coop.
Rachel Brown, Pantry model coordinator and co-author of the report, said:
“Food is a great foundation for hope and progress. Pantries bring people together, and when that happens it unlocks the potential for community-led change. That’s why we’ve been thrilled this year by Pantry members forming steering groups to have a greater say, and by members speaking up on national TV, and joining in the Speaking Truth To Power programme and Let’s End Poverty campaign.
“Charity can never be a long-term answer to food insecurity. We need a Government-driven commitment to ensure everyone can access good food without having to turn to others for help. But everyone also values community, and the hope that such community provides, and Pantries are providing that in abundance.”
The report is based on a survey of Pantry coordinators, conversations with members in various Pantries, and in-depth interviews with coordinators of six Pantries, in Ebbw Vale, Kingston, Lowestoft, Leith, Birmingham and Portadown.
The research found that Pantries were playing a growing role in their wider communities, linking up with other groups, introducing members to new opportunities and support, responding quickly to requests from elsewhere, becoming hubs that connect and strengthen community relationships.
If Your Local Pantry had 100 members...
would say
being a member has improved household finances
would say
tackling food waste is important to them
would feel
more connected to their local community through the Pantry
would say
being a member has improved their physical health
would say
being a member has been good for their mental health
would have
made new friends
would say
they are eating less processed foods
would say
they now eat more fresh fruit and vegetables
would be
volunteering at the Pantry
The social side has been fantastic. Everybody that comes in is really lovely and everyone I volunteer with as well. There’s nobody that isn’t lovely! For me on a social level, it’s brilliant getting out of the house more.
Member of Aylesham Pantry
There’s a community that forms around the Pantry. People get to know each other and know each other’s names, and children’s and grandchildren’s names. We offer tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes so people can sit down before or after they shop and have a bit of a chat with each other, and out of that sometimes friendships have evolved.
Coordinator of Freedom Foods Pantry, Portadown
