A Central Fife charity received a welcome funding boost after a race night which raised £1020.

The night was organised by the Ballingry Masonic Lodge to support the community pantry at BRAG enterprises in Crosshill, which was set up during covid to combat food waste.

Pantry development worker Lorraine Gronkowska said: “It was brilliant, we sold 85 tickets and didn’t even have to advertise it. Hopefully we’ll do it as an annual thing.

“The guys from the masonic lodge have been brilliant with us this year. They raised some money for us in the summer, and we were only joking with them when we said, ‘what about a race night?’

“The next day they had it all organised. I’d never been to a race night, so I didn’t know what to expect, but what a laugh we had.”

(Image: BRAG Enterprises Crosshill)

Discussing the pantry, she said: “Every Thursday customers pay three pounds and go out with about ten items including free ones such as bread and vegetables, and also things like nappies and sanitary products.

“We raise money to buy extra food for the shelves because we’re pretty much self-funded. We had 75 customers walk in yesterday, so we like to have back up stock.

“We’ve got over 300 members, so it’s good to have lots just in case they all came in at once.”

Services like the pantry are certainly in high demand right now. Mrs Gronkowska continued: “The price of food is rising, which we’re noticing as well. Where a tin of soup used to be 35p it’s not 65p. For people going along to a supermarket, it’s expensive no matter what shop you go to.

“We’ve got customers who come in for just cleaning products or nappies, so if they can get those products on that they can use the money they save for other things like bread and the butchers.”