Community larder - would you use one

[Moana987]

If you didn't need to for financial reasons?

Within a 15 minute drive I have 3 Community larders where you just go and help yourself. Sometimes they have some decent stuff in and other times its just stale bread left.

I use them now and again, when passing I may have a look but financially I dont need to use them so I feel guilty sometimes encase others need the food.

They are not food banks. They are to stop food that's perfectly fine going to waste.

Would you use one?

Not if i didnt financially need to no. I dont financially need to at the moment but i would if needed in the future

Yes, we have one by me and I think it’s great. Add you say, sometimes it’s great stuff sometimes it’s awful. But I really like the idea of saving food from landfill and my guinea pigs love the “past It’s best” fruit and veg. We have another place a few miles away that get huge bulk deliveries of surplus food add they sell it on cheap. Often there is nothing wrong with it at all, and it’s just an incorrect order or they have ordered too much. At the moment they are doing 4 punnets of strawberries for £1 and 10 portions of other fruit and veg for £2. They ALWAYS have free bread add you can take up to 4 at a time. Other times they have had 15 free eggs with your 10 fruit and veg, 4 packs of free sausages, 4 litres of milk etc. it’s a brilliant community initiative and they also offer free DIY classes for women, recycled paint for cheap, a mega cheap cafe from the food.

Yes because they're not good banks they're to avoid waste. I'd be careful not to take more than I could use.

if a family needed a food bank and the larder was empty they could use one.

No I’d leave them for people who actually need them and that’s the intended purpose of any that I’ve seen. Free fruit that people leave outside of their homes is one thing but I personally wouldn’t take from a community larder.

You can’t always use a food bank when you need to. They often have limited days and hours. I used to volunteer making referrals to food banks and it was awful to have to tell someone that they’d have to wait a day or two.

Your Bulk place sounds great. Nothing like that around here!

I don't because I financially don't need to and the one near me always runs out of food which I'm hoping means people who need them are getting the food. I'd feel too bad doing it.

I’d ask the people running it if I was permitted to buy stuff. I’ve never used one but maybe they all have different rules.
It does sound like a great initiative to reduce waste (I still think I’d feel a bit bad though, in case others needed it more).

I feel really conflicted on this. We have one locally and one a little further away.

The further away one sells their produce (cheap) and uses the money for local projects. It's better stocked than a standard corner shop, no shortage of anything. So those in need benefit both from the cheap produce and the profit from other people buying it. I'm happy to use that one.

(Edited to add - this one gives their produce free to those who can't pay, though i don't know how that's organised)

The other is a simple free-to-take community larder. Much smaller, hit and miss with what is in stock. They are very clear it's there to avoid food waste and actively encourage anyone, regardless of income, to use it. But often there are only a handful of items there, so I can't bring myself to take anything, as someone in need would them get nothing. Unfortunately, that also seems to mean that more goes to waste, so that one is failing.

I guess that's a long winded way of saying I wish they'd let those of us who are willing and able to pay to do so! 😅

We use ours weekly, it means that we don't have to get to the point of struggling. Community larders exist to stop food going to landfill, we just take what we know we will use. We wouldn't qualify for a food bank so for us it's the in between and you're not taking from others.

I would and do use our community larder, I normally take lettuce and cabbage that look past their best. As I know I can just remove other leaves and they probably will go on a compost heap.
They also have a pay what you want community cafe (drinks like lattes are charged) and I always buy a meal and give about 15% more then I would normally pay. I also give to the pay it forward meal deal.
But our community larder is really all about food waste not giving free food away.

There is one near us. I've never seen it as reducing landfill, I thought of it as 1 step away from a food bank! I've never used it as assumed only people in desperate need would use it? They have fridge, freezers, fresh produce and non food items like nappies, tampons etc but its all free and I don't think anyone stands inside managing what people take.

I use the olio app to reduce food waste locally and have put my excess allotment veg on there before too (or I give it out to friends/neighbours).

I think their messaging needs to be clearer. We have one, labelled as a larder not a food bank, and it is clear that anyone is welcome, but then they also sometimes post stuff on Facebook in support of food banks / food poverty initiatives etc. So I think that's actually their primary motive but they call it a community larder to reduce misplaced 'shame' for needing to use it. So I don't use it. But sometimes at the end of the day they post saying how they're swamped with strawberries or whatever, so stuff does get wasted.

So do they operate as a food bank but accept that means that sometimes with fruit/veg gluts there will be waste? Or do they make it clearer they're for everyone, and accept that richer people might get so much of the food that some needier people might go hungry?

One option might be to have say 11am to 6pm for people who NEED the food, and then 6-8pm for everyone, to use up the waste.

I might if the food was getting thrown out otherwise and the main aim was for the food to be used, but probably not if I thought other people needed it due to finances. Also probably only if it was very close to me, I wouldn't drive 15 minutes to it.

As someone who used to work in this field, no. This is because while the message from the larder or pantry may be that its an eco thing to stop waste food, this is usually to remove stigma about using it rather than it being seen as something that's just for 'poor people'. I've set many, many of these up in my time and surplus food donations are dropping rapidly so there's not enough food for those who don't need support too. Most people self manage and realise the score after a couple of visits, but honestly nothing is more sickening than watching people rock up in their luxury cars to scoop all the cheap strawberries when you know that a struggling family will be along later and miss out. Have a bit of self awareness, people!

I use one and it costs £5 per visit and you can visit once per week.

You can take 10 items from the shelves which are things like tins tea, coffee and pasta, and 3 items from the fridge, so things like meat and milk. Then you can also take bread, and fruit and veg items for free and sometimes toiletries and nappies.

I do contribute back by taking surplus veggies from my allotment there.

I co-run and part fund one.

It is absolutely set up to stop food waste. Reducing people’s food bills is a very pleasant side effect.

In fact we have gone out of our way to encourage the wider community to use it to take any stigma away. We had to deal with a couple of instances of “well meaning” people telling off people who were using it because “their cars and clothes were too nice” 🙄

We don’t charge. It’s done on an honour system. People can take whatever they want, and also (completely separately) donate any money they want. It’s worked well for years now.

I have used Olio, which is also to reduce waste, so I would use a community larder if there was a convenient one. I'd be careful not to take more than I could use and also maybe check with staff if they didn't seem to have much stock. You could always make a cash donation if you're feeling guilty.

I've tried to use the Olio app at my work place and each time nobody turns up to collect it, despite claiming it, so I've stopped bothering.

3 near where I live

Stops food going to land fill

People also grow their own fruit & veg & add into the pantry

People also add small non food items too

There is also a separate book swap

People sometimes give me items, so I keep some for my family, some for friends & put the rest into the pantry.

It is a good idea

If it's the type that's for reducing food waste then I wouldn't have an issue with using one.
There's one near where my mum lives that's near a Hello Fresh distribution centre.
The "community fridge" regularly gets spare unsold boxes from them.
They would be thrown in the bin otherwise.
It's different types of food to what you usually get in a food bank (ie perishables vs non perishables).

No - because our local ones are clearly poverty reduction ones with a food waste sideline message to reduce stigma

Boxes of fruit and veg get left in our library. I take a few apples or carrots etc on the second day if there are loads and it looks as if they will go to waste.

Likewise, the kind people who leave surplus windfall apples or courgettes in boxes by their gate, I happily take a few.

A community larder in an area with lots of struggling people? No, I wouldn’t.

😅cross posted.

As someone who runs one, this is exactly the attitude we try to discourage.

That said, it probably varies from area to area. Ours is rural and there tends to be more of a community attitude.

We have a larder and it definitely is a food bank that they try very hard to pitch as avoiding waste. They always have plenty though so I do go now and again. The bags are a fiver and I always give £10 to buy another for someone else, but whenever I do that the ladies always appear with another bag of fruit or whatever or a treat for the kids so I don't think they are short on stuff but the cash probably helps