Lodge Lane is renowned for its wide array of restaurants, cafes and international supermarkets, but it’s equally at the coalface of food insecurity.
Every Thursday for the past 15 months, the Tiber Square Food Pantry in Toxteth has seen some of the largest queues forming along the street from 8am, two hours before the pantry opens. Run by the Greenhouse Project and Fans Supporting Foodbanks and backed by Fareshare and the Spirit Of Shankly Supporters group, it has so far managed to feed almost 13,500 family members living in the local area, according to its first annual report.
Paul Khan, Chair of the Greenhouse Project based behind the Square, said the project was warmly welcomed by the local community and has since grown to become an essential service on the frontline of the cost of living crisis. Members, of which there have been 717 since the pantry started, pay £3.50 each week and receive £20 worth of items - including fresh halal meat from a local supermarket as well as household goods.
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The average number of shoppers using the service has steadily increased since its launch in May 2021, with 84 members visiting on average each week from November 2021 to May 2022. The pressures are expected to grow over the coming winter as a result of rampant inflation, a rise in energy bills and people worrying about their mortgage, according to Paul Khan, who added: “It’s going to be a lightning bolt for people.”
He describes the situation as “horrible” and longs for the days when he can “talk about things that are a bit more positive”, but he is acutely aware of the situation unfolding in the heart of Toxteth amid the cost of living crisis. He notes how the area is in the top 1% of the Government’s deprivation reports and increasingly noticed the demand to tackle food insecurity through his work as Chair of the Greenhouse Project - a charity set up in 1997 designed to give disadvantaged children and young people the opportunity to increase their creative potential and grow their life chances.
Paul told the ECHO: “At the Greenhouse project, there are roughly 120 kids receiving education, and we knew that their parents [weren’t well off]. It's not rocket science. We knew there was a demand [for a project like the pantry].”
With a proportion of asylum seekers and refugees living within a ward that has battled high levels of deprivation, Paul said many locals faced significant challenges to get by. When visiting the pantry in May, the ECHO heard from members who were already facing choices between “heat or eat”, with one mum, Sandra, who did not want to give her second name, noting how supplying food for her children’s cookery classes was increasingly difficult. She explained how the cost of living made her “feel like a beggar” despite being employed.
Many of the members spoke of their reliance on the service and its wider community benefit - which also supplies children's books. Mo, a member since February said: “My cupboards are now full which is primarily from this, and it just takes so much pressure off me. It’s meant I can start saving a bit.”
The number of volunteers over the first year has also increased to 28 and all play a role in giving the pantry its ‘farmers market’ feel within Tiber Square - something designed to break the stigma of food insecurity. Liverpool FC midfielder Thiago Alcantara has also recently supported the Greenhouse Project education programme and backed a fundraiser to help improve the charity’s outdoor space.
But the project isn’t immune to the pressures Paul mentioned earlier, which are only set to increase in the months ahead. He said: “In the second six months, the price of food had gone up by 10.9% and now it's gone up much more. For a palette from Batleys we were initially paying £450, now £675.”
As part of Fans Supporting Foodbanks, he said the demand on all of the pantries it runs across the city has increased over the last year - with the project feeding over 60,000 people in a 12 month period. Pantries are operated in Toxteth, Kirkdale, West Derby, Netherley and Fazakerly, with its most recently launched in Walton receiving around 130 members a week.
Paul added: “You could probably put one of these in every area, except from the most affluent, and you’d get a lot people using them, especially given what’s going on right now with the economy.”
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