The Lang Toun Larder – A Community Pantry
Update – Aug 2024
Since August 2020, Greener Kirkcaldy has been running a community food pantry – The Lang Toun Larder. In that time, we have supported almost 300 pantry members to access food and other services like welfare support from Fife Council, energy advice from Cosy Kingdom, and more. To date we have redistributed 50,524kgs or just under 50 tonnes of surplus food, the majority of which was shared through the pantry.
We also piloted two cash first approach pilot projects in partnership with Fife Council’s Putting People First Team and Kirkcaldy Foodbank.
It has become increasingly difficult to access funding as well as enough surplus and unsold food to redistribute to pantry members. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to run the pantry without sustainable funding. We will, therefore, be closing the pantry on 29th August 2024.
Our aim through the pantry, was to increase knowledge and skills alongside giving people access to good quality, nutritious food. We are still committed to this and are looking at new longer-term projects to replace the pantry. We will be back with a pilot project in the winter that will bring people together to access food and learn new skills. We continue to run regular cooking classes, a community meal, and a community fridge on a weekly basis.
We would like to thank our amazing volunteers, who have been instrumental to the success and running of the project – from the initial idea (during the COVID pandemic) to collecting and sorting food donations and supporting members on a weekly basis. 30 volunteers have been involved in the project over the last 5 years, including pantry members themselves. They have developed strong and trusting relationships with pantry members and have gone above and beyond to support the project and our community.
Pantry members have been on a journey with us too. We are grateful for their support throughout the project and have been privileged to know and support them over the last five years.
Finally, we’d also like to thank all our funders and partners over the years who helped make the project happen: Fife Council, The Robertson Trust, Neighbourly, and the Link Group.