Community Action Suffolk now has a team in place who are supporting food projects across Suffolk.  The Community Food Partnership Team are focused on helping projects that already exist, as well as supporting the development of new food projects around the county, with the aim of reducing dependency on food banks, and increasing access to healthier foods.

Their early work has shown a big increase in community pantries across Suffolk recently.  This is most likely due to the cost of living crisis and communities looking to support those most in need.  Many pantries are being set up by local churches or parish councils.

Pantries are generally unstaffed but looked after by a team of volunteers behind the scenes.  They can take many forms such as a shelf in a communal area, plastic crates in a church porch or a small shed outside a village hall.  They all have something in common though: the food inside is freely available for anyone to take, and donations can also be left inside too.

Often, the need for food is a symptom of circumstance rather than being a standalone issue. It is important that those who access food projects, including unstaffed pantries, know what other support is available, so that they can avoid becoming dependent on freely available food.

The Community Food Partnership team have therefore developed some resources for anyone who is either already running an unstaffed pantry, or is interested in setting one up.  Our guide aims to help you think about some key factors in setting up and running a pantry.  We have also developed a poster that can be displayed at pantries to allow people to find support with other issues besides food.

These can be downloaded here:

Click on this link to download the Unstaffed Pantry Guide  

Click on this link to download the accessing affordable food in Suffolk poster

If you are interested in finding out more about community pantries or would like help to set up one in your area please click on this link to contact Community Action Suffolk 

For more information about the work of the Community Food Partnership Team please click on this link to visit our webpages and click on this link to follow our Facebook page.