January is often said to be 1000 days long and, even being less dramatic, this was a long month for our community pantry.
The Pantry opened 11 times in January, and had around 200 visits from people accessing food, toiletries and warm outerwear.
Sadly, due to a weekly evening hirer decamping before our closing date, despite being told the space was available until then, we had to make the tough choice to stop our Wednesday evening opening for the second half of the month. We’ve managed to fill all but one of our remaining Wednesdays, though, so will be able to do these extra evening sessions, except for 21 Feb.
We gave out 57 hot drinks and 43 soups. Our soups this month were roast tomato, spicy carrot and lentil, ‘Mumbai’ style potato and onion and roast pumpkin soup with home grown veg from our allotment! The favourite drink was, as always, hot chocolate.
These were paid for by our Patreon supporters – thank you so much – and by people paying it forward when visiting or online.
We did run out on the last Wednesday open, though! The pic above shows our high tech ‘peg’ system with an empty wheel of kindness behind it.
Sadly, demand for our pantry is going up as are our costs – not a great combo. Southampton City Council triggered their Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) this month for rough sleepers, but this is now lifted and folks are back sleeping in shop doorways, multi storey carparks or in tents in the park. A lot of these folks drop in first thing when we open to sit in the warm, dry out, have a hot drink, grab a free pastry from the pantry and talk.
This is why we had to prioritise a way to continue the pantry when we leave 178 Above Bar.
The pantry will be running here at Above Bar Street until Wednesday 13 March, then we are moving it to Board in the City CIC from the start of April. A lot depends on the level of support we have – so if you want to get involved, visit here.
Folks visiting ranged from our steady core of unhoused and vulnerably housed, rough sleepers and refugees to folks who had hit a financial rough patch this month – a lot of people are really struggling with the choice between heating and eating, and accessing food from our pantry as well as other local projects is vital for many.
It was not great having to turn those in need of a hot drink away and honestly, we seldom do – but it isn’t sustainable for us to fund this, along with food collections. Sadly, this month we had to bid goodbye to our regular Fareshare delivery, as we did not raise enough to cover these for October – December and didn’t wish to risk being underfunded for another quarter.
Luckily, Graham’s visits to local co-ops have been very successful and we have managed to source food from local charity ‘The Big Difference‘ as well.
It’s a bit of a juggling act at the moment, and our team were very busy starting ‘the grand clearout’ getting us ready to leave this building. Our Jumble Sale has been a great success, helping to plug some of the shortfall from last year, so thank you to all who have supported that so far! It will continue until Saturday 10 Feb.
Here’s how you can help:
