Our Story
The Vale Pantry was set up during Covid to tackle the food deprivation that was very much hidden behind closed doors. The initial funding came from the Blackmore Vale Partnership (GP Surgery) and Jane Dawes, who was then the practice manager and Carole Jones, the councillor on Dorset Council for Sturminster Newton set about finding premises and offering a Pantry Service. A successful call out for volunteers has led to a magnificent team of local people all happy to give their time to help, and this has continued to grow.
A successful National Lottery Funding Bid allowed us to employ a Pantry Manager, Kim Voizey who is the most remarkable person with drive, passion, and bucket loads of empathy, and it also allowed us to take in our own dedicated Citizen’s Advisor who works with us for 1 ½ days a week.
Over the years word quickly spread about the availability of fresh foods, the choice and the amount of help offered, and before too long at any one time, well over 300 families were using the Pantry on a regular basis.
Uncovering the underlying causes of food poverty allowed us to start working on putting together a number of strategies and mechanisms to help people get back on their feet. As people were able to step back to independence, new households joined—we have had a revolving door. In our first four years, around 600 families have been helped back on their feet.
As time has gone on, we have seen that our small shop premises didn’t give us the space we really needed to sit down with people needing help. We wanted to go so much further, bring in partners, and provide a real wrap-around service to provide the level of support that many families need. Carole Jones set about writing funding bids, applying for grants, the result of which has led us to moving into new, larger premises and opening as a main family hub where any family, adult, parent, carer, or young person can find help, support and a listening ear.
We continue to welcome new volunteers, many forms of help are always needed. Our greatest challenge of funding will continue as we expand, take on a couple more staff – and that’s just to start with!
We welcome people to simply drop in, our Welcome Cafe serves great coffee, and our Baking Club works weekly providing cakes! So, what’s not to like!
Welcome to the Vale Family Hub