Tuesday July 22nd 2025
Central Dalkeith and Woodburn Pantry's storage container
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Central Dalkeith and Woodburn Pantry saw great success at their first solo food drive on Saturday, working alongside Morrisons Dalkeith.
Despite beginning in 2022, this past weekend was the first time they collected donations via a food drive solo, without working alonsgide another organisation. Being their first solo drive, they gathered a large amount of non-perishable food donations, receiving around 40 trays packed to the brim with generous Dalkeith locals donating bags full of desired donations.
Their food drive consisted of the pantry’s volunteers standing at the entrance of Morrisons Dalkeith and handing out leaflets with a list of non-perishable items, asking people to buy a little bit extra to donate whilst doing their shop.
Lead Volunteer at the Pantry and member of the Community Council, Karen Soar, explained, “I think we got around 40 trays, around 35 to 40. Just filled with food. One of the volunteers here that I rely on borrowed a van and they did three trips delivering stuff here [the pantry].
“I printed 500 leaflets, thinking that would be enough. By 2 o’clock, we were asking people ‘can you bring the leaflet back?”.
“Generosity, it really makes you stop. There were people giving us bags and bags of stuff.”
The food drive on Saturday began at 10am and lasted until 3pm, receiving far over the expected amount of food donations alongside £85 of money donations. Karen explained that the drive was very successful, highlighting that the level of generosity was incredible.
Morrisons fully-supported the food drive, allowing the pantry a space to collect donations. The pantry normally has a donation box at Morrisons’ exit but, despite providing a large amount of donations, it doesn’t provide as much as a food drive does. The pantry is also supported by other large supermarket franchises in the area, for example, recently Aldi donated 335 kilos of food, both long-life and fresh.
Muriel Vevers, a member of staff at the Morrisons explained, “The day went really well, better than we thought it would due to the bad weather. The ladies set up in the front entrance to the store.”
“The food drive was very successful on Saturday and the ladies were kept very busy.”
“Morrisons is always happy to assist the food banks and pantry’s in the area. We prepare daily made up bags with tined and dry food for the pantry that the customers purchase.”
Karen explained that Muriel has always been a crucial part of Morrisons help, pushing the supermarket’s charity board to consider and help Central Dalkeith and Woodburn Pantry.
Karen explained, “I just got a phone call from Morrisons saying, do you want to do a food drive? And, I went yeah of course because we’ve never done one on our own.”
Karen and her pantry have only done food drives alongside other local pantry’s and foodbanks, being part of three in the past associated with Midlothian Pantry Network.
“We’ve done three now associated with the pantry network. Working alongside other pantry’s you normally get either a lot of beans or cereal but with this recent one we put down what we were looking for.”
Central Dalkeith and Woodburn Pantry was started in 2022 by Karen, using community space in the Woodburn Community Hub to provide food to people who needed it. Karen began the pantry as being part of the community council, she noticed the need for a pantry in Central Dalkieth and Woodburn. With pantry’s in other areas across Midlothian she asked herself why there wasn’t this place of care in her area. Alongside this, a prediction of the severity of the cost of living crisis encouraged her to get a group of volunteers together and start providing discounted food from the Woodburn Community Hub.
They are open every Friday and provide around £22 worth of food, both long-life and fresh, for the reduced price of £3.50. Unlike foodbanks, they provide to anyone with no referrals needed. Alongside providing food, Karen also hosted cooking classes, teaching people how to cook delicious meals on a budget. She shows great care to her community, building friendships and getting to know anyone who walks through her door.
The pantry’s volunteers provide food to around 65 families every Friday.
“We provide to a minimum of 65 families on a Friday”, Karen explained, “Usually at a certain point in the month it can be 80 families that come through our doors. And that’s whole families.”
The food that the pantry shares is either donated by the public or bought by Karen herself out of her own pocket, promising that every Friday they will have food to provide. Alongside this, they do occasionally receive grants from various avenues. Karen explained that never once since beginning have they been unable to provide food to anyone, buying in food if they are lacking in some food types.
With no future plans to host another drive as of yet, Karen and her team of volunteers are hoping for another food drive following the success of last Saturday’s.
Tweet Share on Facebook
