Fresh and frozen food in new Isle of Wight community pantry

Cowes Community Pantry opened on Tuesday (September 11) at Unit 1, Seaways.

The pantry is the first in Cowes to offer fresh and frozen food as well as ambient stock.

Membership costs £5 for a weekly visit, for which members receive a minimum of £15 worth of food for.

Fresh food is available at the pantry (Image: IWCP)

The pantry is open on Tuesdays from 10am to 12pm, Thursdays from 5pm to 6pm and Saturdays from 5pm to 6pm, ensuring that all users can access the service.

Andy and Monique Gallop, who run the Seaview Road pantry, have built relationships with suppliers and local businesses to fight food insecurity.

"We've had major support online and on Facebook," Monique said.

Andy explained that the walls of the pantry were donated by local building companies.

"It's a massive project, and we're still looking for donations."

Membership costs £5 per week, with members receiving a minimum of £15 worth of food (Image: IWCP)

Despite financial support from businesses, parish, and town councils, Andy and Monique say that the Isle of Wight Council have not funded the project.

Andy said, "We don't know where it's going, because we keep on coming up against the same roadblock."

"We told them we're going to do it without them, it's obviously not the ideal situation.

"We didn't want them to fully fund us really, we were just looking for seed funding."

Monique added: "We want the same support that other people on the mainland get from their councils.

"At the moment we get huge support from the parish councils which is fantastic, but the Isle of Wight Council should support us.

"On the other side of it, we have had support from other areas of the council like public health."

An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson responded: “The organisation approached us for funding; however, we already fund a community pantry in Cowes and DWP guidance stipulates we are unable to fund duplicate provisions.

"We asked the organisation to work with the current provision to discuss potential collaboration.  

"To our knowledge this has not taken place but the second provision decided to open via funding from an alternative source.”

The next steps for the pantry are to expand their volunteer base to help with the distribution centre, as well as approaching Cowes Enterprise College to see if students want to volunteer as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award. 

Cllr John Nicholson, Mayor of Cowes, was in attendance at the pantry's opening.

He said: "It's only because of the tenacity of Andy and Monique that this has come about.

"I think that it's attractive for volunteers, because you can see what Andy and Monique are doing is making a tangible difference."