Launch of new community pantry in Kirkcaldy

Volunteers at the Greener Kirkcaldy Langtoun Larder Pantry

The project has been developed by Greener Kirkcaldy and the Langtoun Larder is located in their building in East Fergus Place.

It will collect unsold or surplus food from local businesses and redistribute this to members who can shop at the pantry once a week.

Members pay a small weekly fee to spend on fresh, frozen, and store-cupboard ingredients, as well as refills of basic essentials such as flour, tea, coffee, rice and pasta.

The new Langtoun Larder Pantry at Greener Kirkcaldy.

Weekly special offers, meal kits, home-made meals, and baking will also be available too.

There are 50 pantry memberships available on a first come, first serve basis. People can call 07551325548 to apply to become a member, or to find out more information.

This project is the next in a series of activities Greener Kirkcaldy have run to support the Kirkcaldy community to access food and eat well.

Back in March, like lots of organisations and businesses, Greener Kirkcaldy had to find new ways of working as a result of lockdown.

Volunteers at the Greener Kirkcaldy community kitchen with community meals ready to go.

Unfortunately, they had to pause their weekly sit down community meal at East Fergus Place. However, thanks to funding from the Scottish Government’s Supporting Communities Fund, and together with a fantastic team of volunteers, they quickly adapted by making fresh, home-made meals in their community kitchen, and delivering them directly to households in Kirkcaldy.

Between April and August, they delivered a total of 7,400 meals to households and organisations needing help accessing food in Kirkcaldy. 3,050 of these meals went to the Kirkcaldy Foodbank at Linton Lane and Viewforth Church Hall. Over 160 people in over 70 households benefitted from this service.

Geraldine O’Riordan, project co-ordinator, said: “We delivered our last ‘Community Meal to Go’ on Friday, August 28.

“We’d like to acknowledge all the help and support from volunteers over the last 22 weeks who helped to make this happen. Twelve volunteer cooks and drivers prepared and cooked food, packed meals, labelled boxes and dropped off food all over Kirkcaldy. We could not have done this without them.”

Find out more about Greener Kirkcaldy’s Community Meals to Go project and their new community pantry at: www.greenerkirkcaldy.org.uk or by emailing [email protected].