Bolton Road Community Pantry

The Pantry, which opened in May 2022 now helps to support a number of local families and individuals in need. After a slow start, the pantry has gone from strength to strength. We now have over 30 members and have opened a waiting list. We work in partnership with Porch Boxes and we are on Thursday mornings between 9.30am and 1pm.

A generous grant from Tottington and Bury West Rotary Club enabled us to buy shelving which now boasts a good selection of tinned and packaged items of food. We also have a chest freezer (bought out of the Rotary grant) and a fridge-freezer donated by a church member. We stock various chilled items, bread, toiletries, sanitary products, and we are able to offer our members fresh produce each week. We have also received a substantial grant from Bury VCFA and grants from local councillors.

Members pay £3 per week to use the Pantry, but leave with shopping worth substantially more than this. Their payments – and any donations – allow us to buy stock for the forthcoming week, and we also have a weekly delivery from Porch. At this time in particular, with the cost-of-living crisis forcing families and individuals into food poverty, the Pantry can meet a real need in our local community. Please support us in whatever way you can so that we can help more families; through prayer, volunteering, donations of food or money, or by becoming a ‘Friend of the Pantry’ by setting up a regular donation by standing order. Please speak to our Treasurer Ros Brown if you feel able to do this.

During the Winter months we combined the Pantry with a warm space. We continue to offer tea and coffee in the lounge and many of our members stop for a drink and a chat and a hot crumpet or slice of fruit loaf.

Thanks are due to those who organise it all, receive donations, go out and do the required shopping, and meet-and-greet members each week.

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)