About us
A pantry run by the people who live on Larch Street
We started in 2019 with two tables and one van in the back room of a church hall. Most of our volunteers still come from within a mile of the door.
Our year in numbers
412
parcels a month, on average last year
86
volunteers on our rota
3
opening days a week, all year
These figures come from our 2025 records and were checked by the trustees. Parcels are counted when they leave the hall.
Who runs it
Maren Holt coordinates volunteers and has run Tuesday packing since the first year. Jonah Pell runs the van and the Saturday round.
Tobias Reyne chairs the trustees. Trustees are unpaid, meet every quarter and publish our accounts once a year.
What did not work
In 2024 we tried a Sunday afternoon session. Almost nobody came, and the volunteers who did give up their Sunday were tired. We closed it after four months.
What we did instead: moved the extra hours to Saturday morning, when most of our families are free. Parcels per opening day rose by a fifth in the first quarter.
Saturday now serves 1 in 4 of our households.