Meet Cheadle's Newest Charity: Claire's Corner Community Pantry
- Jun 25
- 2 min read
If you've visited Cheadle Car Boot in the past couple of weeks, you'll have noticed two new stalls: one offering general items and one selling branded food at low prices. This is the work of four local community-focused people who are determined that local residents can afford to feed themselves and their families.
Some months back, a local resident working in the NHS realised that many local people could benefit from more affordable food, providing better nutrition and physical health while reducing the financial burden many of us worry about. They had seen community pantries working in other parts of the country, bridging the gap for those who were unable to access the food banks but were forced to choose between eating and heating.
According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in 2022/23 over 14.3 million people in the UK were living in poverty. This represents 21% of the UK population. The figure includes 8.1 million working-age adults, 4.3 million children, and 1.9 million pensioners.
You'll find them at the Tape Street Carpark Car Boot Sale every Sunday morning, so do go along, say hello, and if you're struggling to make ends meet, do take advantage of the range on offer.
Setting up a community pantry is not an easy process, and many months of planning and organisation have taken place to allow the local group of volunteers to reach the start of their journey, which is now getting food out to local people.
We've watched the Claire's Corner journey with interest, and last weekend we caught up with one of the team, Cllr Vicky Wheeldon, who shared more about their plans.
Vicky told us that currently the pantry's main activity is the Cheadle Car Boot, where they host two stalls: one with general items for sale, which raises the funds they need to buy the food, and the other stall offering the food to local residents.
They are urgently looking for a shop space to operate from and volunteers to help with distribution and fundraising. The sooner they can achieve these two goals, the sooner struggling Cheadle residents will start to benefit from cheaper food. Having a permanent premises will enable the group to focus on feeding the town and not on moving goods in and out for just a few hours of trading; more volunteers mean better availability to residents and more money to buy in the food.
The range of goods on offer is expanding as they are able to buy in more food. Once they set up the shop, goods will be offered on a membership basis to ensure fairness in distribution. Goods on offer include staples such as rice and cereal, with snacks and other items available too.
The other gain we shouldn't overlook is that the community pantry will prevent food from going into landfill, which is where it would be destined if community pantries across the country didn't step in.
Listen to our full interview with Vicky Wheeldon here:
Meet Cheadle's Newest Charity: Claire's Corner Community Pantry, Cheadle Local News - created 25.6.25
