The London ‘people’s pantry’ where a week’s shop costs £3.50
On a sunny Thursday morning in September, the Pantry in north London is buzzing. Customers browse the wooden crates for celeriac and butternut squash; one picks up a tin of organic tomatoes and pops it in her basket. The smell of rich mushroom soup wafts through the air.
But this is not a luxury food shop with prices to match; it is a “people’s pantry” on an estate that may be a stone’s throw from the high-end retail outlets of King’s Cross but feels a million miles away.
A new social enterprise, the Pantry is stocked with surplus food. Once a week, customers pay £3.50, and take close to a week’s worth of shopping that may have a value of between £15 and £20. Served by volunteers from the Priory Green estate, shoppers stick around, have a cup of tea or some warming soup, and chat to their fellow residents.
It is not, the members stress, a food bank. “You can pick what you want and just take what you need,” says Sheenika Webb-Rainsby, 32, whose baby Matthew is being passed round the room with glee. “There shouldn’t be any stigma about going to a food bank, but I think some people do feel a sense of shame. Here, it’s more like you are doing a shop and giving back to the community at the same time.”
The social enterprise behind it, Cook for Good, also runs team-building events based around food for companies, with all profits ploughed back into the community. Profits from events held in a new kitchen at the heart of the estate go back into the area, and Cook for Good also runs workshops on cooking and life skills for residents.
Zeina Nour, 38, says volunteers helped her with her CV and to find voluntary work to help her get a job. Her friend Anan Faraj appreciated receiving tips on how to sneak vegetables into nutritious meals
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