Your Pots 2025 community grants build a regenerative economy in Lancaster District. The third annual ‘Your Pots – Your Say’ community voting day was held at The Storey in Lancaster on 15th November, and it was an energising event full of enthusiasm, great connections and hope.

And, as in previous years, the Closing Loops partnership has evolved the model, with an exciting new opportunity for the community to get involved through online voting. Another £50,000 was on offer in 2025.

Your Pots has distributed £150,000 so far

Twelve local charities and community organisations were present for the third decision day, held on the 15th November 2025 in central Lancaster.

Each were bidding for a Pots of Possibility ‘Your Pots’ grant of between £5,000 and £10,000. As in the two previous years £50,000 of Your Pots funding was available for distributing to community led projects. The money will deliver even more projects to regenerate North Lancashire’s environment and support local communities. These grants come ultimately from the National Lottery Community Fund, but the decision is devolved to the Lancaster District community.

Read (and listen) to what went on

Tickets to attend the in-person decision day were quickly snapped up and nearly 100 people came along to have their say.

After taking their seats, the audience watched a collection of short films that each organisation had made to explain what they wanted to do. You can still watch the videos on the Lancaster District CVS website.

Once all the films were shown, the ‘Your Pots – Your Say’ marketplace got under way. Voters could go round and ask questions before deciding how to cast their vote. Each organisation used their marketplace stall to pitch their project and persuade people to vote for them.

Importantly to ensure as fair a process as possible, and make people consider all the projects on offer, not just their favourite, everyone had to vote for 4 projects… no more, no less. Applicants could also vote… just not for themselves. And voting was open to anyone from the age of 8 upwards. The same rule of exactly 4 votes was used for the online vote too.

The Your Pots 2025 podcast

Jez Hall of Shared Future has created a 20 minute podcast, from interviewing the participants bidding for money. It’s available to listen to on SoundCloud:

Along with a chance to get funding, the organisations said what a great networking opportunity it was, plus a chance to explore possible collaborations and ways to support each other.

People were also impressed with how much hard work and dedication was already happening and enjoyed finding out about organisations they hadn’t heard of before. And the chance to share an online voting opportunity within their own networks was really valued.

More ways to participate with online PB this year

In addition to the in-person voting day, online voting was offered this year for the first time.

The online vote was open from the 8th to the 13th of November 2025, which meant that people who couldn’t attend the voting day in person could still support their favourite projects.

The idea of adding an online vote emerged following feedback from the previous year. To ensure fairness online voters had to vote 4 times, were strongly encouraged to watch all the videos first, and had to leave identifying information to ensure they were a bona fida local resident.

All the online votes were checked and just a small number discounted. Either because they had either not supplied all the identifying information needed, had tried to vote more than once, or had left an address outside of Lancaster District.

And it was a great success, with large numbers of people sharing the opportunity through social media, and then voting, all based on watching the project videos. Applicants said the opportunity enabled them to reach a far wider audience, as can be heard in the podcast above.

Co-designing Your Pots with the community

Every year there is a Your Pots co-design process, before a new idea is tried. The big change this year was of course the online voting.

As it was new, and we wanted to test out the idea, whilst also encouraging people to come to the event, it was decided that online votes would have 1/3 of the value of a vote from actually turning up and meeting the applicants. This ensured the face to face meeting made a significant difference to the final outcome. And also, many more local people could find out about the projects and have their say.

LDCVS, Shared Future and LESS, the three partners behind the design of Your Pots will carefully review all the feedback from this years process, including the rules for the online voting.

Then, working with the wider Food Futures partnership, and community members attending a 2026 Your Pots design day, we can make any changes to ensure the format of the next round of Your Pots, due in autumn 2026, is even better!

This years Your Pots winners

Once all the face to face and online votes were counted, six of the twelve projects were recommended for grants.

Importantly the applicants who weren’t funded are always supported and signposted to other opportunities, such as next years Your Pots, or the related Food Futures Community Pots funding which is launching in spring 2026. Ensuring everyone is a winner, as all of the projects were of great value and all deserved funding.

The results always remain provisional until full application checks of the winning projects have been completed. However, here are the six projects selected through the public vote for a 2025 Your Pots grant and how much they are due to receive:

• The Hygiene Bank Lancaster & the Bay (£5,000): The Hygiene Bank provides free products to people in need, tackling hygiene poverty and promoting dignity, health and wellbeing.
• Global Link Friday Global Cafe (£7,985): Asylum seekers and refugees will use locally grown and/or surplus food to cook lunches Fridays at Stanley’s Community Centre.
• The Adullam Programme: Treasured (£9,978): Pilot a social enterprise offering supported work experience and purpose for people facing complex barriers to employment and inclusion.
• Lancaster Men’s Hub: A Quantum Leap (£9,994): Creating, repairing/refurbishing wooden and crafted items and sharing our facilities, tools and expertise with other members of our local community.
• More Music: Three Degrees Festival (£10,000): Youth led, climate action, community music festival and workshops. Three Degrees will engage the West End community in climate action.
• Whinney Hill Farm: Growing the Community (Part funded £7,043): Expand Whinney Hill Farm Garden for growing space, volunteer training, food production, and community sharing to support skills and wellbeing.

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Read the news report on the FoodFutures website

Watch the 2025 project videos on the LDCVS website

Read about last years Your Pots process and watch the 2024 video on our website