Sleaford New Life Community Larder

Sleaford New Life Community Larder provides emergency food parcels for residents of North Kesteven who find themselves in financial hardship and unable to purchase their own food. The Community Larder work closely with a range of referral agencies working with clients to ensure the best support and strategies are put in place to help people in their time of need.

Their response to the COVID-19 pandemic saw a sharp rise in visitors, as people struggled with reduced incomes and/or redundancy. To put this in some perspective, at the end of May 2019 they had received 275 referrals. At the same point in time in 2020, they had received 456 referrals; a 66% increase on the previous year.

In the first three months of lockdown, the Community Larder had provided 17,715 meals (3 meals a day for 5 days) helping feed 237 different households, 309 adults and 209 children.

During the COVID-19 situation, they were also able to support households who were shielding or self-isolating with shopping, medication collections and deliveries, alongside supporting the Lincolnshire Resilience Forum with emergency food parcels to be distributed across Lincolnshire, covering a distance of over 4,800 miles.

This had only been possible thanks to people who have stepped forward to volunteer. For the first time in the Community Larder’s history, at one point, the shelves were completely empty, and they had to buy in stocks of food on a regular basis.

Sleaford New Life Community Larder would like to say a big thank you to all who have continued to support them with either financial donations or donations of goods. Their tag line has always been ‘By the community… for the community’ and it has been such a joy to see our communities pull together through this difficult time.