Free Fresh Food Pantries
Our Free Fresh Food pantries are located in Hertford & Buckingham . Each one works in partnership with local supermarkets, orchards, and restaurants to repurpose the surplus food they are unable to sell. We also purchase to top up when needed. We aim to be a dignified way to access food when you are going through a tough time. Our Fresh Food Pantry aim is to help people struggling to make ends meet access healthy food, reduce isolation and to ensure no good food goes to waste.
Opening hours and donations
Buckingham pantry
Our Buckingham pantry has been entirely free, with no tiered access or early-access donation, since November 2021.. We are deeply grateful to the army of volunteers in Buckingham who donate their time, day and night, to ensure this continues.
Hertford pantry
Our operations have continued to grow, and we now employ four people to support the volume of collections our volunteers alone can no longer cover. From 21 May 2026, in order to keep the fresh food pantry free and to fund the collections that make it possible, the schedule at our Hertford pantry is as follows:
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Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: Free access from 12:15pm (early access from 12:00pm for a £1 donation).
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Thursday: Free access from 12:30pm (early access from 12:00pm for a £5 donation).
Free access is available every weekday: 12:15pm (Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays) or 12:30pm (Thursdays). Nobody who needs food is turned away.
All donations go directly towards paying for the drivers and staff who collect surplus food from our partner supermarkets, and towards creating jobs in the community. The food itself remains, as it always has been, free.
Hertford Pantry
How it works/Behind the scenes:
Our army of selfless volunteers go out each evening to collect hundreds, (sometimes thousands) of kilos of unsold, good-to-eat food from local supermarkets. This includes good quality vegetables, fruit, dairy, baked goods, meat and fish products. They dedicate hours of their evenings to sort food, store and freeze as appropriate. We work late into the night, behind our shutters & doors, ensuring the food we collect is preserved ready for the next day.
The next day, our friendly distributions team arrive early to display all the food ready for the families to come and help themselves. We also share recipes if you are unsure what to cook with the ingredients.
God gives.. food to the hungry.
Ps 146:6-7
FAQs:
Where does your pantry fresh food come from?
Most of the food we distribute is sourced from our network of local supermarkets who work with us to reduce food waste by ensuring it goes to those who need it most. Some also come from allotments and orchards. We also supplement by purchasing eggs when protein is low.
Do I have to pay to collect food from the food pantry?
The food itself is, and has always been, free.
Our Buckingham pantry has been entirely free, with no tiered access or early-access donation, since November 2021.
Our Hertford pantry is also free every weekday:
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Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: Free access from 12:15pm (early access from 12:00pm for a £1 donation).
-
Thursday: Free access from 12:30pm (early access from 12 noon for a £5 donation).
All donations go directly towards paying our collection drivers and staff, and towards creating jobs in the community. Without them, our collections cannot continue, and without our collections there is no food to share. Nobody who needs food is turned away.
Do I have to be Christian to collect food from the pantry?
No. There is absolutely no requirement to be christian or listen to any kind of preaching. That is not what we do. There's no catch. All our lovely volunteers are keen to help and would love to see perfectly good food make its way into the hands of those who are struggling to feed.
