Fair Frome’s latest project, The Community Pantry, supports those experiencing food insecurity by providing a sustainable affordable food offer with dignity and choice to those accessing their services. The Community Pantry runs out of the Fair Frome Elliot building at the Frome Town Hall once a week on a Tuesday. This is a membership only service with members signing up to access support for 6 months.
Unlike the food bank, in which people must get a referral to access the service, households are able to complete the registration themselves. The low-cost membership of just £3 or £5 a week allows members to choose how much they can spend each week giving people flexibility and choice.
Fair Frome Assistant Coordinator Rebecca Harrison who leads the project said:
“We recently celebrated our first 6 months of the Community Pantry and have helped 56 families and individuals during that time, that’s 150 Frome residents per week. As well as providing food for members we have also been able to offer wrap-around signposting to other services too to address individual needs. The Mendip Credit Union’s Volunteer Anne Hills has been on site to support grant applications and we now have a dedicated Support Worker from Purple Elephant Family Support to provide activities and support for families”
“This project aims to support people who are currently struggling in our community with a sustainable and longer-term solution,” adds Rebecca. “Fair Frome has seen an increase in the number of people who are accessing our services because of the cost-of-living crisis and the current economic climate”.
Fair Frome is looking for any support from local individuals or businesses who can offer resources to the Community Pantry going forward in order to make this valuable service sustainable for our charity. This could be in the form of excess fresh food from allotments or in date food products from catering companies and food producers.