The Shepherds Pantry

The Shepherd’s Pantry is a portfolio of community-focused, food and hospitality amenities operated by Staplehurst Free Church. Alongside our hub of other activities these contribute to delivering our charitable aims of using our resources and facilities to make positive contributions to the health and wellbeing of local people.

Welcome to our Community Fridge

The Community Fridge is one aspect of our Shepherd’s Pantry initiative. It is open to everyone to help save on food bills and reduce the amount of food that goes to waste. It is a food redistribution initiative which provides free access to food which would otherwise go to waste because it is surplus to the requirements of a local store, supermarket or producer. Our team of volunteers collect and display the food in the Fridge and on the adjacent larder shelves.

 

The Fridge is currently open:
Tuesdays  12:30-4pm

 

Wednesdays 9am-11am

 

Thursdays 9am-4pm

 

Saturdays 9am – 11am 

Any questions?

Why not look at our Frequently Asked Questions Below

 

Q. “Is the food bank for anyone?”
A. We are actually a Community Fridge! So, our prime aims are to reduce food waste, to empower communities and bring people together.
We accept donations of appropriate food items from individuals and businesses in the community. After it has been checked for all the necessary labelling the food is then made available for everyone in our community. So, Yes it is for anyone who wishes to use it!
You can look at it like this: GIVE what you CAN and TAKE what YOU NEED

Q. Do you take donations?
A. We will not ask you for any financial donation but there is an opportunity to do so if that is something you would feel comfortable with.
Donations of food are most welcome – and we have our donation box at the Free Church and also Sainsburys in Staplehurst support our Shepherd’s Pantry Community Fridge with a food donation box.

Q. Please could you give me some ideas of items you can accept?

Q. Is there anything I can’t give?

To comply with current regulations, unfortunately there are some items we cannot accept. These are

  • anything either (or about to be) past it’s Use By date (to keep recipients safe)
  • anything frozen or prevously frozen
  • or as shown below: