Our vision is to sustainably feed the communities around Ashton both physically and spiritually.
We opened Ashton Pantry in May 2021 in one side of the church hall. We work with other pantries in Church Wigan and are supported by a fantastic team of volunteers! Our intercepted food comes from FareShare, local warehouses, supermarkets, local fast-food outlets and any other sources we can find. This food may be close to its best before date or beyond in some case; but is perfectly edible and too good to throw away! We don’t ever provide food past its use bydate.
The pantry is open on
- Tuesdays 11-12
- Thursdays 2-3
- Sunday 3-4
With a pop-up at Holy Trinity, Downall Green on Friday 9-10.
Annual membership is £5, and we ask for a minimum contribution of £3 per shop of up to 15 food items towards our running costs. You can keep up to date with what’s happening on our Facebook page – especially if we have an abundance of certain items.
The current pantry accommodation is only a temporary arrangement as we are working towards setting up a purpose-built food pantry and commercial grade kitchen in the middle of the two wings of the hall. The new kitchen will provide Pay-As-You-Feel meals using intercepted food and buying in additional food when needed. There will also be cooking lessons available for everyone, teaching participants to prepare healthy, budget-friendly meals from scratch. The following video tells you a bit more.
Once the pantry has moved, then the right side of the hall will become the café and warm space – and a place where we can offer additional support. Our Lifted partners, Wigan CAP Debt Centre, will provide one to one debt help and money coaching courses to equip individuals with practical financial skills. Other support agencies will also offer their service, such as Green Doctors, Support to Succeed and Bounceback Food CIC and we will continue to work closely with Wigan Council’s Household Support Fund and Holiday Activity Fund teams.
If you would like to support our building project, you can donate here
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