A food pantry and warm space is supporting Isle of Wight residents in Newport, as the winter sets in.

Community hub, Pan Together, has been running a community larder, for East Wight locals, for about month.

It officially opened on November 4 and now runs on Tuesdays and Fridays, between midday and 3pm. 

Pan Together says it saw a 160 per cent increase in requests for food-related support between July and September (compared to between October 2021 and June this year).

Isle of Wight County Press: The Pan Together community larder.The Pan Together community larder. (Image: Pan Together.)

How to support Pan Together's Community Larder

It has called the surge in requests for help 'shocking'.

Rachel Thomson, Community Centre Manager, said: "No one should face going hungry. 

"No one should have to choose between food, fuel and children's clothes. 

"The Pan Community Larder will provide direct and vital support to local families and households in these grim, tough and challenging times, when the cost of living crisis is biting so very hard for so many."

If you are a resident of Pan, Pan Meadows, Barton and Fairlee, you can visit the larder - as long as you are a member of Pan Together charity.

Isle of Wight County Press: Food at Pan Together, including tomatoes donated by Isle of Wight Tomatoes.Food at Pan Together, including tomatoes donated by Isle of Wight Tomatoes. (Image: Pan Together.)

One grateful resident who uses the community larder said: "What with Christmas, my son’s birthday, coming down with Covid-19 and energy bills rising ridiculously, my family was left completely skint, with nothing for ten days. 

"Knowing there was help from Pan Together was a godsend. 

"The £50 voucher I was kindly given filled my cupboards and covered the gas and electric for a week, till I got back on my feet."

How to use Pan Together's Community Larder

  • Membership to the charity is free
  • Weekly access to the community larder, for two shopping bags of goods per household, is free to charity members until at least until the end of the year. 
  • Organisers say they are likely to introduce a 'small charge' in 2023

Isle of Wight County Press:

Pan Together will also be receiving some of your donations to the Isle of Wight County Press and Isle of Wight charities Wight Warmer Knit-in. 

Handmade blankets, hats and scarves are being donated through the challenge, in the run-up to Christmas, to try to keep Islanders warm through the cost of living crisis and because of rising energy bills. 

Pan Together's community larder is one of four currently running on the Isle of Wight.

The first opened in East Cowes in May, as the Isle of Wight County Press previously reported.

Pan Together's Rachel Thomson said: "Our community larder has been made possible thanks to significant capital funding from The Isle of Wight Foundation - and a raft of other kind and generous grants and donations from companies and individuals which have helped us to stock the larder with fresh, frozen, tinned and dried goods and other household essentials.  

"Sadly, Pan Together's community support and anti-poverty services are becoming increasingly essential and provide a real lifeline to so many vulnerable and marginalised local people."  

The Isle of Wight Foundation is the charitable organisation made of the partners behind Island Roads and it's chairman, Rob Gillespie, said: "We thought the idea of a community larder was both an excellent and timely one."

The Pan Community Larder has also been supported by Fidelity International; the Department of Work and Pensions, via Isle of Wight Council's connect4communities scheme; a Magic Little Grant  (through Localgiving and Postcode Society Trust); M&S Gifting Grant; TK Maxx and Homesense Foundation; private donations.