Tackling Food Poverty and Food Insecurity
For the Lighthouse Pantry continue reading this page
The link takes you to the Middleton Central Foodbank Website
Lighthouse Pantry - a Membership Food Club
Waiting list in operation
Due to the high demand for membership of the Pantry there is currently a waiting list for new applications which we monitor on a regular basis.
The Lighthouse Pantry is our membership based food club. It was set up in December 2018 to help local families and individuals reduce their weekly food costs, and keep more money in their household to cover other bills or needs. It was formally opened in March 2019 by the Lighthouse Project patron Steve Coogan.
People have been struggling for many years, so this isn’t new, but the number of families needing help and wanting to join the pantry is increasing week on week. This has become so important, and such an essential means of help for so many families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
The Pantry is a membership based club and eligibility and usage conditions apply to make sure that the Pantry is used to make the most impact. More information is provided in the application form.
To become a member fill in the application form and bring it back to us along with some proof of address. We will check your eligibility and then confirm your membership after which you can then start using the Pantry once a week to save yourself some money. See details below.
Lighthouse Pantry Opening Times
These are our normal weekly opening times. For opening times around Bank Holidays, Easter, Christmas and New Year please visit the ‘What’s On’ diary on our home page to confirm the opening times. Generally the Foodbank and Pantry are closed between Christmas and New Year.
| Opening Times | Start | Finish |
|---|---|---|
|
Tuesday |
9:30 am |
12:30 pm |
|
Thursday |
9:30 am |
12:30 pm |
|
Friday |
9:30 am |
12:30 pm |
Please attend at least 15 minutes before finish time in order to complete your visit
The idea behind the Pantry is to help people to reduce their weekly food costs which then allows some of that money to be spent on other household bills, such as rent and utility costs. Currently members are receiving around £25+ retail value of food in their food parcels.
Pantry’s make use of supermarket surplus which we buy in to stock the shelves, so some of those items may be short dated, and we never know from week to week what we will get, however, what people take definitely has a positive impact and saves them money.
One person recently commented that since using the Pantry they have ‘been able to give their children proper cereal, which has made them so happy’, and another said ‘the money I saved at the Pantry allowed me to buy some shoes for my grandchild’.
As the Pantry is a membership based club some eligibility and usage conditions apply this is to make sure that the Pantry is used to make the most impact.
More information is about this is provided in the application form.
A few other important and helpful things about how the Pantry works and your visits are set out below.
Due to high demand applications for membership may be subject to a waiting list.
- To be eligible to use the Pantry you must live close by and be able to get home within 15 minutes with your chilled or frozen products. This is a requirement of our food suppliers.
- Due to high attendance at the Pantry on a Thursday new members will initially be asked to use the Pantry on a Tuesday or a Friday.
- The Pantry is about support, it is not a replacement for all of your food shopping. It is a way of saving you money on your weekly food costs, in order to leave you with more to spend on other household bills.
- The food we will have in the Pantry will vary from week-to-week. Our food primarily comes from supermarket surplus, to prevent food waste, so we never know what we will receive until it arrives.
- As a Pantry member you will save money on your weekly food costs.
- We work on a fair share basis to help all of our members.
- Weekly costs are just £5 for 10 items plus 4 free items of fruit or veg.
- The average retail value of a weekly visit is £25+ depending upon the stock available.
- Here is some WRAP guidance on best before dates and redistributed food.
How to Join the Pantry
To find out more you can call into the Lighthouse Project and ask for a leaflet and membership form,
or, you can also download them below.
To apply for membership fill in the application form and bring it back to us along with some proof of address.
We will check your eligibility and if all is in order then we’ll confirm your membership after which you’ll be able to use the Pantry once a week to start saving yourself some money.
We are running the Pantry in conjunction with a few other organisations, Your Local Pantry, Church Action on Poverty, and Fareshare Greater Manchester, with the aim of helping people to keep more disposable income in their household for other things by reducing the money that is spent on weekly food costs.
Ways to keep in Contact, or get in touch.
via email – pantry@lighthouseproject.org.uk, or via @YLPLighthouse on X (Twitter) and Facebook
In the year November 2024 - October 2025
This is what we achieved through the Pantry
Community News
Summer Fundraiser – afternoon Tea Party
an afternoon garden tea party in support of the Lighthouse Project and its dementia support work…
Navigator Riders June 2026
Local Biker group, the Navigator Riders, have been fundraising on behalf of the Lighthouse Project…
Celebrating our 16th Birthday
Since we first opened our doors we have recorded over 450,000 visits through our doors, that’s a lot of people needing help, and a lot of tea bags and loo roll!
The Lighthouse Project is part of local charity Inspire Middleton which raises all its own funding through grants and donations. The help and support of groups and organisations is just the type of thing that we need – are you able to donate and invest in helping us tackling poverty and building a better community?