Bloxwich Community Pantry Launches at Stan Ball Centre

On 28th January 2025, Bloxwich Community Partnership officially opened the doors, and store cupboards, to the first of four planned Community Pantry’s opening across Walsall.

Thanks to Walsall Council providing funding for the initial set up, bespoke cupboards have been built so that they shut and lock to ensure stock is safely secured away when the shop is not open and allows the room to be used for alternative purposes. When open, the space runs as a community shop; open to the services users of the Stan Ball Centre for an hour every day, Monday to Friday, and now open to the public every Tuesday from 1.30pm – 3pm

The stock is all purchased from a local cash and carry and is sold at the same cost price to pass on the savings to the customer. Only ambient stock is sold so there is no food waste or fresh produce going out of date, but all essential store cupboard items, toiletries and household items are stocked.

Liza Jackson, Walsall Connected Partnership Manager, tells me that there has been a bit of a trial to see what items are most popular in the shop and currently they are selling a bit of a mixture of all products including breakfast items, beverages, puddings and the essential items that can be used as basic ingredients to make a meal.

The idea of the shop is to offer service uses of the centre a convenient alternative to purchasing grocery items from a more conventional local shop; generally, people using the Stan Ball centre are older adults so they can get items that they need whilst they are there and not have to go out to a local shop in the dark and cold and where they might feel vulnerable.

The plan is that there will be more shops like this one across Walsall and, just like this pioneer pantry at Bloxwich, each shop will be set up differently and run their own way. There will be no prescribed model to allow the Community Pantries to run in a way that best service the local community that will be using it.

The Community Pantry at The Stan Ball Centre has been open to service users since the end of October 2024 with 136 members signed up. Costing just £2 per year for membership, today the invitation to shop at the Pantry is opened to the local public. The shop will be run purely by volunteers; including completing all the behind-the-scenes work required to maintain the smooth running of the pantry like stock checking, stock rotation and stock filling.  There is lots of work that goes on in the background!

There are currently three shops like this one that have been funded however Bloxwich Community Partnership Pantry is the first one to be fully operational and open; the other two are at different stages of development. They are looking at February or March time to open. The next two Community Pantry’s planned will be run from Old Hall People’s Partnership (OHPP) from the previous site used for the charity shop; this has had a refurb and will have a total different look to what it was previously an d this shop at Stan Ball! The other will operate from Darlaston All Active and be based out of the Town Hall. This will allow for that to run very differently again.

Here at Stan Ball, the stock purchased is all In Kind stock; In-Kind are a charity that provides mainly toiletries so we have a scheme whereby if a customer spends over £5 on a shop, they can choose a free In-Kind item; and this seems to be working really well.

The Launch was well attended by a number of council staff members, including leader of Walsall Council, Cllr Garry Perry, who gave some back ground to the “decision to think differently” with how funding as used and to “bring back some dignity {to give} people the choice about where they go and what resources they access”, before cutting the ribbon as the official launch opening!

A massive thank you to everyone who took the time to talk to me at the launch and equal thanks to everyone who attended for this special occasion. Don’t forget, Bloxwich Community Pantry is open to the public at Stan Ball Centre, every Tuesday between 1.30 and 3pm.