Isle of Wight hopes to strike deal to ferry free food to island

Eighteen families have already become members of the Ventnor Community Pantry

Talks are taking place on how to ferry donated food from mainland supermarkets to families on the Isle of Wight.

The island's council said it was "in negotiations" with firm Red Funnel to bring over supplies at no cost.

The food would come from the FareShare scheme, which supplies food to people most in need around the country.

It comes as new community pantries open on the island to support those hit by the cost of living crisis.

A spokeswoman for ferry company Wightlink said it had also offered the council one complementary crossing a week for three months.

A new pantry in Ventnor opened last week, another in Ryde is due to open later in June.

Food for many pantries comes from the charities supplied by the FareShare scheme, which redistributes surplus food from supermarkets and shops.

Marzena Turner, who runs the new pantry in Ventnor, said: "We don't want to take away from those organisations, that wouldn't be right.

"It wouldn't be sustainable if we had to pay to get the food from the mainland, we want to make sure we have extra food coming in."

Ms Turner said the Isle of Wight Council was in talks with the island's ferry company to bring FareShare supplies from the mainland at no cost for the next "few months".

More than 500 companies take part in the scheme including some of the biggest supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury's

The Isle of Wight aims to eventually have five community pantries across the island, providing access to discounted food.

Members spend £5 and in return receive £15 worth of goods.

Ms Turner said: "In our first week 18 families signed up to become members, that was 27 adults and 37 children."

Isle of Wight Council's connect4communities project manager, Laura Hales, said it was "still in negotiations" with Red Funnel and FareShare and that a meeting was scheduled for Monday.