Kindness is never in short supply at Perry’s Pantry

Chorlton is held up as an example of a thriving Manchester neighbourhood, and it’s easy to see why.

The suburb is packed with independent shops, trendy restaurants, a renovated library, and a non-league football team at the top of their game.

More flats are coming soon, serving sky-high demand for homes in M21, where house prices have rocketed by 761pc in the three decades since 1995. It now costs £438,366 to buy a home in M21 on average.

However, less than a mile-and-a-half away from Chorlton’s thriving heartland, it feels very different.

Perry’s Pantry

On the Merseybank estate, still within Chorlton’s boundaries, shops are shuttered and the hubbub of suburban cool is no longer present. It’s a functional place, littered with rubbish and metal fences.

But at the very end of Merseybank Avenue is somewhere gratitude and generosity are in abundance.

It’s Perry’s Pantry, a foodbank where referred users can get a big shop for free, and anyone can join for £5.

After paying the annual membership fee, users can shop for tinned goods, sanitary products, toiletries, fresh fruit and veg, ready meals from FareShare, frozen food, and even donated bakery delicacies from upmarket chain Gail’s in Didsbury.

It’s a lifeline for people like Filipa Guimaraes, who lost her warehouse job after her son fell ill a month ago.

“We are still finding out what the problem is,” she sighed as I LOVE MCR visited the pantry.

Portuguese Filipa, who speaks English as a second language, continued: “My income reduced because of my days off work to look after him. I struggled. It’s shocking, and I was scared when it happened. I could not express myself.”

When she found the pantry, she was ‘so relieved’ because ‘all of these nice people here are very welcoming’ and showed her ‘a lot of patience’.

Filipa pops in every Tuesday for a £9 silver package for her ‘big family’, which feeds them for three days (there’s also a smaller £6 bronze tier), making her one of the ‘40 to 50’ regulars, according to Trish Reilly-Hurst, the driving force behind the project.

M20 and M21 Postcodes

The stated aim of Perry’s Pantry is to help people facing ‘poverty or hunger in the M20 and M21 postcodes’, and about ‘50pc of people come from the [Merseybank] estate’ Trish added, and ‘50pc come from Chorlton and West Didsbury and the surrounding area’.

“You would think, in M20 and M21, it’s not an issue,” said volunteer Sue Trotter. “It is, but it is very well hidden.

“I went to the pub and someone said we did not have food banks here. I said we absolutely do.”

“It’s not spoken about,” agreed Trish, who named ‘budgeting’ as a main reason why Merseybank residents come in. New volunteer Annica Avendano added: “A lot of people are looking after loved ones at home. Sometimes people come in just to talk to someone about their problem.”

“You would think, in M20 and M21, it’s not an issue”

Mental health issues also hit Merseybank residents hard, Trish went on: “Depression is a massive thing on this estate. We are open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and some weeks people come and they go back to bed for six weeks.”

They first learned how prevalent the problem is on the estate shortly after opening in late 2022, initially offering to take groceries to users’ homes. Fiona Armstrong Hall recalled: “When we used to deliver, people would say I have not spoken to anyone since you last came.”

‘parcels for people fleeing domestic abuse’

Since dropping deliveries, Perry’s Pantry has branched out: It has ‘parcels for people fleeing domestic abuse’, does packed lunches for children in Merseybank during school holidays, and ‘will help people from outside’ M20 and M21 ‘as a one off’, according to Trish.

Despite having a lot on their plate, the team wants to resume some deliveries, receiving ‘some money’ from local housing association Southway so they can ‘deliver to 12 families who are disabled and cannot go out’ for three months.

They want to continue the programme after that window, however, and are hosting a fundraiser on Sunday, April 13, at St Catherine’s social club on School Lane in Didsbury.

You can find tickets, more information, or make a donation to Perry’s Pantry online here