Wokingham Borough’s first community pantry opens its doors this week.

Roots Community Store has been set up to run from Norreys Church in Wokingham to help residents who can’t afford a full, healthy diet. 

The membership-based store is being jointly run by SHARE Wokingham, Wokingham Foodbank, and First Days Children’s Charity.

The seed funding of £32,000 needed to set the store up was provided by Wokingham Borough Council through its Hardship Fund.

Roots will offer low-cost food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, to support healthy food choices and positive health outcomes.

It will initially be launched as a pilot during the next few weeks to ensure its processes and procedures work.

Customers will pay a £5 per week membership fee which allows them about £25 of goods. This acts as a top-up to regular shopping.

The organisations involved have worked together to get it up and running. SHARE provided the location, while Wokingham Foodbank has set up the membership structure.

First Days has managed the project, as well as providing staff to run the pantry.

CEO at First Days Children’s Charity  Emma Cantrell said: “It’s been a huge team effort to get this set up in recent months with all three organisations pulling together to get this open as quickly as possible once funding was awarded in the autumn.

“Demand for support for this type of service in the borough has grown in recent years with food hardship increasing.

"The pantry provides a way for people who are struggling to get higher value for a small membership contribution.”

Although Roots is the borough’s first pantry they are available across the country. They provide groceries at a lower cost than supermarkets or shops, as well as helping to reduce food waste.

SHARE redistributes 40 tonnes of food from local supermarkets and food suppliers that would otherwise go to waste each week.

The Community Pantry provides a range of fresh fruit and vegetables, fridge and freezer items as well as, foods with a longer shelf life including pasta, tins, and cereal.

A range of toiletries and cleaning items will also be on offer. There will be limits for how many items of each type a household can take each week.

Founder of SHARE Claire Revie said: “Since SHARE has become established we’ve wanted to find the next way we can support our communities.

“The community store gives members the ability to choose what they want to use their money on and what’s most important for them and their household. It also gives us another way to help with our goals for reducing food waste locally.”