The Pantry Foodbank continues to serve Belton, Burgh Castle and Browston
residents of all ages with support when experiencing financial difficulties.
Families, whose children attend Moorlands Primary Academy, who may move
out of one of these three villages, for one reason or another, will also receive
support.
In the past year, The Pantry has seen considerable changes in the way it
functions due to increased need. For a few months, this need was reduced from
sixteen households to ten, but we now are experiencing an increase from ten
to thirteen households with more expected. The gifts are mainly prepared by a
volunteer who is supported, depending on need and this works well. The
household gifts were slowly being reduced from weekly to monthly with the aim
of completing Pantry support and, if necessary, moving onto weekly gifts using
Tesco over the day/damaged items. This continues to work well relying mainly on
one volunteer to oversee the collecting, sorting and delivering Tesco items with
some overlap depending on other’s roles.
Volunteers are used to shop and deliver for/to needy households ranging from
one person to a family of ten. Some volunteers have dual roles but collections
and deliveries are co-ordinated by one volunteer while another co-ordinates
logistics. Thirteen Volunteers ranging from ‘one off’ support when
contacted/available to reliable weekly input. All support is very much
appreciated however much time, energy, fuel and prayer are given with vehicles
available when needed. We rely upon D.I.A.L. for confidentially supporting
families with financial struggles.
In January the Council provided funds to give every household £50.00 ‘one off’
gifts of groceries who have difficulty making ends meet. To date, we have
achieved twenty-three of these gifts with twenty-five plus pending. The
workload has more than doubled because these special gifts are mainly over
and above general Pantry duties.
Our thanks go to Church, Bradwell Butchery, the Labour Party and everyone
who has helped the Pantry in serving the community in small ways as well as
large, whether with physical, monetary or prayerful support. May God’s
Blessing continue to be with you and at the centre of all we do for as long as is
necessary.
Colin & Marion Chilvers
& The Pantry Foodbank Team
