Championing the Food Pantry

Situated in the heart of Ayr, the ‘Food Pantry at the book & bun’ launched in December 2021, helping people make their money go further by reducing their food shopping bills.

This Food Pantry is the first one in South Ayrshire based in Ayr Town Centre. A Pantry is a membership scheme aimed at helping people make their money go further by reducing their food shopping bills. Members pay a weekly £2.75 fee allowing them to shop for 10 items, which have a collective value of over £20.

Local Pantries mean people can bring down their food shopping bills, and access good food, whilst freeing up more money for other essentials and enabling tight budgets to stretch a little further.

The Pantry offers dignity, choice, community, and food quality where items stocked include fresh produce and branded items with household names – such as Irn Bru, Richmond, Heinz etc. Toiletries, cleaning products, and sanitary items are also stocked at the Pantry.

Alongside the Pantry, the book & bun has a small café area selling teas, coffees, cakes, and flowers with all profits made feeding straight back into stocking the Pantry with diverse and healthy shopping options. The Pantry also accepts donations of pre-loved books, which are cleaned up before being sold for a small price as another means of fundraising.

The Maybole Community Campus team are delighted to have sponsored the Pantry and are covering the cost of the reusable tote shopping bags which are being used by Pantry members. To date we have provided 500 bags at a cost of £1200 and will look to replenish the stock as the Pantry membership continues to grow. In addition, the project team will be running pre-loved book collections from our Morgan Sindall colleagues. These books will be donated to the Pantry to support their fundraising activities.

Morgan Sindall are delighted to be supporting the Pantry at the book & bun, seeing first hand the impact this charity is having on the local community. We look forward to a long-lasting relationship with them as we continue to construct fantastic new facilities across Ayrshire.