Pantry update by Gill – Friday 24 May ’24 at Board in the City

Posted on May 25, 2024 by janifranck

Gill here on Friday May 24th. Before even arriving at BitC I had pantry users approaching to ask if we open today . Today we had a warm colour theme going on, big juicy oranges, bright red beef steak tomatoes, shiny red apples and beautiful brown eggs. Very little bread but lots of croissants, with cakes and shortbread to accompany plus potato, onion and coconut soup. A big thankyou to our collection pixies and The Big Difference and Co-op Ocean Village!

Every drop of soup was served: thankyou Ziggy for warming and serving and Nicola for creating such beautiful soup.

At noon all our tables were occupied by folks enjoying their hot drinks and soups!

Thankyou to the person who donated some craft soaps, these were particularly popular! We had some major soap sniffing going on as folk decided which was their favourite. Lots of tampons went too! Donations of toiletries would be extremely useful as we have very few! In warmer weather our folk really appreciate wipes and deoderants. We have no toothbrushes, toothpastes or other basics other than tampons at present!

So who was in today? Some of our folks who were regulars from Above Bar, we caught up on their news and how they are doing, more locals are becoming regulars too! We have young folk, older folk, some living in temporary accomodation, some rough sleepers. It’s really nice meeting so many folk and numbers doubled from the previous week! We hope very much to continue this trend!

A big thankyou to prospective new volunteers, e-mails will be coming your way tonight or tomorrow.

Watch this space, more to come soon. …thanks so much to our regular supporters who make this project possible!

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Saturday Social update by Jez – October Books, Sat 18/5/24

Posted on May 19, 2024 by janifranck

Jez here! A quick report on our pop up Saturday Social at October Books on Sat 18/5/24

This was our second one, so numbers are still building as word spread. First in was a lovely soft spoken person who had found us via one of our partner organisations – they had a cuppa and a little chocolate treat and after a little shyness we had a great chat about art, life and other things!

One of our regulars from 178 Above Bar St found us, they were greeted with big smiles by our crew who have been missing those familiar faces we used to see every week! They stocked up on fruit and had a nice tea, and chatted to two others for quite a while.

At the very end, a gentleman popped in who shares food with unhoused folk in Portswood and he was able to take all our leftover doughnuts and other sweet treats to pass on – we love it when stuff like this happens!

I popped into the front bookshop and invited a few people in – we really need to sort our signage better – and a lovely couple joined us for a good hour, had coffees and we put the world to rights!

Even better news is that three of the people who came are up for volunteering at our regular Friday pantry! Gill was quick to take their details so we can get them in – if you are up for volunteering, we need folks to help at Friday pantry and at Saturday Socials, we need folks to help collect food for the pantry, to spread the word – and if there’s something else you’d like to do, please suggest it!

October Books community space is a great place to hold these socials, not least because they’re a very likeminded organisation, being a radical bookshop and a co-op. I managed to resist the call to buy a book this time, but only just! They also have a great selection of ethical products.

We were supplied by some delicious fruit, pastries, cakes and biscuits by The Big Difference for this – thank you!

Thanks also to our supporters who part funded the event and to people who made a donation for their drinks and food – we are still £31 short on the cost of this event, so a little donation would be appreciated if you can!

https://buymeacoffee.com/arthousepantry/wishlist

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Pantry update by Gill – Friday 17/5/24 at Board in the City

Posted on May 17, 2024 by janifranck

Gill here …Hi everyone!

After an unexpected break last week due to a bereavement & unavailability of volunteers to cover (more about that later), we made it back to run the Pantry at Board in the City CIC this week!

We sorely a missed a vital team member but today we had Jez and Bik as our pick up fairies, thankyou both of you!

With Ziggy, Sarah and myself on set up, serve and clear up and Nic and Ziggy on soup… Thank you Nic, Ziggy and Sarah. The soup today was butternut squash with spring onions and coconut!

Today we had a few who are becoming regulars at this location, a few of our old regulars and a few new faces – they were all so grateful for the help filling their food cupboards!

Fruit and veg were popular, breads, pastries and some yummy shortbread went well. All the fruit, veg and bread would have gone to waste if we hadn’t collected it – now it is in the hands of people who need it!

We had some storecupboard items, tins, soups, porridge sachets and the like, which were very popular! We could really use some donations of these! Thanks co-op in Ocean Village for these items from their donation basket.

With a vital crew member down, it has highlighted the fact we need more… if anyone would like to join us we need folk to join us. Maybe as collection pixies, set up, serve and clear up volunteers (not necessarily doing it all), someone with a car who can collect at sessions end (about 1:30pm) leftover food etc to deliver to other locations, also anyone who fancies helping us promote the pantry by leaflet drops, identifying local noticeboards etc.

If you’re interested in weekly, monthly or occasional volunteering please do let us know!

A huge thankyou to everyone who has and continues to support us with donations, without you folk we’d not be able to do any of this!

Tomorrow we have a Saturday Social at October books, including a mini pantry. We hugely look forward to seeing folks join us from 3pm till 5 pm… please pop by! We’d love to see you!

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Event Announcement: SoGreenFest! 1 June 2024

Posted on May 13, 2024 by janifranck

This event was ACE and Fossilheads are up for doing it again so watch this space for SoGreenFest 2025

BUNKER178 are delighted to announce the first SoGreenFest – a gathering of likeminded local people to network, share information, enjoy food and be inspired and entertained.

5.30pm – stalls, info, speakers, food and a chance to chat
Please get in touch if you would like to have a stall or do a short talk

Southampton Seed Swap – swap seeds and plants
Southampton Greenpeace – info and talk
Southampton National Park City
Extinction Rebellion Southampton art group
+ others tba
7pm – music from Fossilheads: Climate Crisis Cabaret
The Guillotine Union Boys ,
Straight to Cake
and Shanti Green.

Pay-as-you-feel vegan food
Sober bar, teas and coffees
Stalls and short talks
Networking
Music and Cabaret!

Tickets are tiered prices, choose the one that most suits your circumstances. The venue is not big, so booking is recommended.

Book here

About Fossilheads:

“A theatrical/ musical/ comical/ operatical duo on a musical mission to encourage audiences toward climate action with their unique songs that put the “oooh” in “existential doom”!
Prepare to be entertained by a captivating duo of talented performers, blending music, comedy, and sheer nonsense into an experience you won’t soon forget.

Shanti Green

Formed last summer in the run up to local and general elections intent on embracing green sensibilities in the Portswood area. They perform weekly outside October Books on Saturday afternoons promoting Green Peace and FOE campaign strategies like Green Peace ‘s “I’m a climate voter”. They will be opening the evening with a 20 minute set of rousing tunes!

Straight to Cake

Regulars of Southampton community events, play music and like cake. Ukulele, Guitar, Fiddle, Bass plus a bit of Mbira. Home made and borrowed songs of love, death, cafes and melancholy.

The Guillotine Union Boys , 

Adept in guitars, mandolin, and banjo, ignite vibrant performances. From spirituals to modern bluegrass, their unique flair promotes unity and progress. They’ll regale you with a lively, crowd-rousing experience, stirring solidarity and change with foot-stomping hullabaloos, promising an energetic musical journey.

About the venue:

Located under central bridge, Arch 4 is an intimate, atmospheric space at Arches Studios run by a space arts – Old Cattle Market, Captain’s Place, Southampton, SO14 3FE – find out more here

Posted in Bunker178, Comedy, Community news & views, Environment, Events, Folk music, Food, Getting involved, Gig announcements, Guitar music, LGBTQ, Local music, Outreach & community events, Punk, Sustainable living, What's on | Leave a comment

Pantry update – Friday 26 April ’24

Posted on April 27, 2024 by janifranck

Gill here! Todays pantry we had a lovely selection of goodies saved from supermarket waste. Huge beefsteak tomatoes, lovely ripe bananas, satsumas by the few dozen, swede, butternut squash, a huge variety of breads, cakes and pastries, vegan milk, coconut water and even crisps.

We never quite know what we’re going to get! But a big part of our Community pantry is saving food from holes in the ground and getting it into bellies. So if you want to help reduce waste please come see us and take away some goodies!

Of course, the other reason for having the pantry is to feed folk who struggle. Along with our supermarket donations we provide our Community Cafe with tea, coffee, hot chocolate and even squash today. So for those folk paying forward drinks and soups we are extremely grateful!

Today that was 6 soups and 12 drinks! About 30 folk came in today including old faces from Above Bar, new regulars and totally new faces.

Today’s soup chef was John who made a gorgeous butternut squash, ginger and coconut soup … huge thankyou John.

Ziggy, Graham and Gill looked after the pantry and Huge thankyou to Bik and Ziggy for being our Wednesday pick up pixies!

We have lovely bright new aprons for volunteers to use.

We do need continuing support, also toiletries, store cupboard goods and volunteers. There’s a volunteer ‘job description’ coming very soon so if you fancy doing set-up, Pantry host or clear up, or any combination of, please let us know!!

Thank you for reading, I’ll follow this up next week with an end of month summary! Looking forward to May and beyond!

To support the pantry with a regular or one-off donation, any amount most welcome and needed, visit: https://thearthousesouthampton.org/donate/

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