A mother of two has founded an eco-friendly grocery delivery service which aims to make sustainable living accessible.
Sarah Vargerson, who lives in Hornchurch with her two children and husband Andrew, created her company - Pantry Shelf - while renovating their family home.
Designed to fill a gap in the market by delivering dried pantry groceries to the doors of Brentwood and Havering addresses, Sarah believes her product will help people live sustainably.
A range of herbs, spices, dried goods and cake mixes can be ordered online through Pantry Shelf, with Sarah encouraging people to “recycle and reuse things” such as old ice cream tubs to store the goods.
All orders arrive in paper packaging, which can be recycled or put into a compost bin.
Sarah especially recommends the earl grey loose-leaf tea, Piri Piri seasoning and fajita mix, which are all hand-mixed in the UK.
She said: “No one is perfect but it is the small swaps which can make a massive difference.
“We need hundreds and thousands of people living a more sustainable life imperfectly to make a change.”
Ahead of Christmas, plastic-free festive tapes, recycled wrapping papers and kids Christmas cards can also be ordered.
While reflecting on starting her venture in September, the 35-year-old said: “While building our new kitchen over lockdown, we wanted to set up our home the way we wanted our children to go on.
“Climate change is impacting the world and recycling is a big part of helping to correct this.
“In an ideal world we would love a refill shop at the end of our street, but there is nowhere near where we live in Hornchurch and driving in our petrol car for 10 miles seemed counterproductive.
“Pantry Shelf helps to make sustainable living more accessible for those wanting to make sustainable swaps.”
Sarah claimed the recycling facilities are much better in Brentwood than Hornchurch.
The Pantry Shelf service will help people to “create less waste and rubbish” while recycling containers already available in most households.
Acknowledging this is a “new way of shopping for people”, Sarah hopes it will become “normality for the community”.
Keen to give back to the community, a percentage of the fee from all Pantry Shelf orders will be donated to local food banks.
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