A food pantry which provides affordable healthy produce to over 500 people on a south London housing estate can continue for four years – thanks to new funding.
At the Paxton Pantry, based on the Kingswood Estate, in West Dulwich, people experiencing food poverty can get a basket of shopping worth around £35 for a small weekly donation.
The scheme, born out of the pandemic and run by Paxton Green Time Bank, has been awarded a £137,410 grant from City Bridge Foundation, which will enable the service to continue for at least four more years.
It is particularly needed as the estate is classed as a ‘food desert’, with no shops selling healthy produce within easy walking distance.
Paul Martinelli, City Bridge Foundation chair, said: “The Paxton Pantry is a simple idea which is making a huge difference to hundreds of people on the Kingswood Estate.
“As well as getting access to affordable, healthy food for them and their families, participants get to make social connections and improve their mental and physical health.”
Paxton Green Time Bank affords people the opportunity to exchange their time and skills for ‘time credits’, which can then be exchanged for services from others.
The pantry scheme differs from a traditional food bank in that people are asked to make a small donation and have more choice about what goes into their shopping basket.
The charity sources produce from food redistribution agencies, which is topped up with groceries from local cash and carries and fresh fruit and veg from Borough Market.
Alison Paule, Paxton Green Time Bank director, said: “The pantry model enables people to feel more self-confident, to feel less reliant on handouts and to choose the food they want.
“It enables people to use what little money they have on other things, like paying off bills. It offers people dignity, hope and choice.
“To have the City Bridge Foundation funding for four years is enormously important because it enables us to get on with doing our work and making a difference, rather than worrying about funding.”
The grant is one of over 400, totalling over £55 million, awarded since October, when
City Bridge Foundation closed its rolling grants programme to new applications for a year, amid unprecedented demand and ahead of the launch of its new funding policy, Standing with Londoners.
The new 10-year policy positions the foundation as a social justice funder, with a sharper focus on tackling the root causes of inequality. The first of four new funding programmes under the new policy, Access to Justice, will open for applications in the autumn.
More information on Standing with Londoners is at https://www.citybridgefoundation.org.uk/standing-with-londoners
