Today, Co-op has partnered with Chef Big Zuu and Miguel Barclay, as they livestream live from Your Local Pantry in Peckham.
By demonstrating simple and nutritious recipes for just a few pounds, and meeting the Local Pantry volunteers and members, this activation will bring the local community together through food.
For live streamed cooking demos, special appearances will be made by chef, presenter, and author Miguel Barclay, creator of One Pound Meals to share tips and tricks on making your groceries go further.
Within three years, Your Local Pantry will triple from 75 to 225 pantries across the UK, with 150 new pantries joining the network.
You walk into a nice facility that resembles a regular grocery store and get to fill up a cart with things of your choosing. You pay a small membership fee every week and then you can choose things that cost hundreds of pounds from aisles.
If you are seeking a little bit of help at the holiday season, or at any other time, you can donate a small fee and receive much more than your original contribution of food. It costs a fraction more than donating your monthly contribution at the Peckham Pantry, but the increased value of your contributions will bring much more food.
Mel Matson, director of customer proposition and communications at Co-op said: At Co-op, community is at the heart of everything we do. We have seen many of our competitors attempt to find the right tone for their Christmas ads this year, to reflect the mood of the nation. Rather than spending multi-millions of pounds on a traditional TV advert this year, we felt the best way to show our commitment to making things a little fairer for our communities, is to pull our Christmas ad altogether."
"Instead, we are able to channel our resources to highlight a hugely important community-led food scheme, which offers choice and dignity when times are tough. Our unique live stream will show that pantries are there to support people and their local communities in dealing with the challenges thrown at them.”
James Henderson, Your Local Pantry Network development coordinator, added: “Pantries are fantastic places. They bring people together around food, soften the impact of high living costs, and strengthen the power and potential of neighbourhoods. Communities have long wanted to improve food security while upholding dignity, choice and hope, and Pantries are a proven win-win solution. We're really excited to be teaming up with the Co-op, so another 150 neighbourhoods can open Pantries of their own."
Big Zuu, TV chef and Grime artist added: “Everyone deserves access to great quality food at affordable prices. I hope that by visiting the Peckham Pantry and cooking up some healthy, tasty and more affordable meals with the team, more people in need will seek out community initiatives like Your Local Pantry.