Initially we wanted to get things going with our food pantry very quickly and so did not want to wait for funding to come through for shelving and display areas. This has meant a lot of heavy lifting between pantry sessions and this coupled with limited storage in our building has meant that running our pantry became very labour intensive. We felt that this was beginning to take us away from the important work of being with our visitors and uncovering some of their barriers.

Finding reliable and cost-effective suppliers has been a challenge. We found that there was lots of interest from supermarkets in supporting us initially, however, this tailed off, leaving us short on stock. After trying several supermarkets and cash and carry's we were able to develop a great relationship direct with a local supermarket, meaning we can access cost effective stock as well as surplus and donated items. 

Although we have always accepted visitors who need to access emergency food provision for free, we have had experiences where regular visitors beginning to neglect paying for their pantry. This has led to tension between visitors as well as a shortfall in funds for restocking. We now make it clear to visitors that they are able to access free provision in an emergency but that the payment method offers more choice and dignity.