Meaning & use
food pantry
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A local charity place where people who cannot afford enough food can collect groceries for free.
Grammar: Takes an or the: volunteer at a food pantry.
Patterns
- donate to a food pantry
- volunteer at a food pantry
- a food pantry for someone
Our church runs a food pantry every Thursday afternoon.
She volunteers at a food pantry near her school.
The students collected canned goods for the local food pantry.
Word forms
| plural | food pantries |
|---|
Common combinations
- donate to a food pantry
- The grocery store donates unsold bread to a food pantry.
- volunteer at a food pantry
- I volunteer at a food pantry on Saturdays.
- stock a food pantry
- Neighbors helped stock the food pantry before the holidays.
- community food pantry
- The community food pantry serves about two hundred families a week.
- visit a food pantry
- After losing his job, he visited a food pantry for the first time.
Synonyms and how they differ
- food bank
- A food bank usually collects and stores food in large amounts and passes it on, while a food pantry hands it directly to individuals.
- soup kitchen
- A soup kitchen serves cooked meals to eat on the spot, while a food pantry gives out groceries to take home.
- charity shop
- A charity shop sells donated goods and is not mainly about food.
Word family
- pantry noun
- a small room for storing food at home
- food bank noun
- an organization that stores and distributes food
- food insecurity noun
- not having reliable access to enough food
Commonly confused: food pantry or pantry?
food pantry vs pantry
A pantry alone is a storage cupboard or room in a home, while a food pantry is a charity service open to the public.
Practice
The family has little money this month, so they collect groceries free of charge at the local ____.
Choose one answer.
A food pantry gives free groceries to people in need. A food court is where meals are sold in a mall.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “food pantry”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.