18 November 2025
snvb Community Larder is 5 years old!
This week marks the 5th year anniversary of the Larder.
In November 2020, the second COVID lockdown was upon us; vulnerable people had to shield, people were furloughed (or lost their jobs) and supermarket queues / food supply was in disarray.
SOFEA (Fareshare) provided us with food and we drafted in wonderful volunteers to help pack and deliver food boxes.
When the world started to open up again, we wanted to bring people to us….
- To choose food they could use and therefore reduce waste even further
- To continue to help those affected by covid (healthwise and financially)
- To allow people to access discounted food with dignity, knowing they were stopping it from going to waste
- Work with other organisations to ensure anyone that needed food support, got it
March 2021 was the first larder session and the years that followed have been an amazing journey, with many changes along the way.
We now support over 400 shoppers every week in Towcester and Roade, help many referrals from food crisis / community support agencies and distribute over 5 tonnes of surplus food weekly.
At our core are a wonderful group of over 100 people that show up every week to make the Larder wheels turn. We have highs and lows. Happiness and sadness. Victories and defeats. Arguments and agreements. Grief and comfort. Most importantly we have fun and laughter and support each other and feel like an extended family.
There are many supporters, funders, suppliers and partners to thank (You all know who you are and how much we appreciate you) but this post is all about the volunteers. Without these fabulous selfless people, we could not open our doors every week. Whether they can support for 60 minutes or 60 hours, they are all key to ‘making it happen’.
So a BIG thank you to all our volunteers, past and present for everything that you do. You have helped build and flourish the Larder into what it is today.