Pippa Pang and Nicole Rooney with the rest of the volunteers for July’s ‘Be Enriched Castle Canteen’ – The dessert: Pear, Flapjack, Orange (with no piff) and chocolate sauce
Left to right; Nicole Rooney, Spokemead’s Commercial Director and Pippa Pang, Kinovo’s Social Value and Marketing Manager outside the venue that hosts the Castle Canteen
As part of our commitment to social value and Fairer Futures within the community for Southwark Council we have signed up to a local charity ‘Be Enriched’ for ‘The Canteens’ project based at the Castle Canteen. Every Monday between 11am and 3pm they make delicious hot 3 course meals using donated surplus food and offer a social sanctuary for everyone to enjoy.
“We have signed up 2 employees to join the team of volunteers on the last Monday of every month. I was in the second pair to go along. It was a great experience, we all met at 11am and pulled together to create a tasty three course meal. One of my tasks was to peel the piff of the oranges for the dessert, which is a lot harder than you would think!” said Nicole Rooney, Commercial Director at Spokemead.
Pippa Pang, Kinovo’s Social Value and Marketing Manager went along with Nicole. One of her tasks was to make tea and coffee for the residents as they arrived.
Pippa said “When we arrived, we were asked by the organisers who wanted to go and collect the food donations from the local Sainsburys. Nicole and I offered and went off armed with carrier bags. We were surprised by the amount of food awaiting to be collected. There was a whole cageful!
Cageful of donations
Taking as much as we could carry away
Action shots
The Canteens Project
Be Enriched creates spaces for communities to come together, congregate and communicate over a healthy and nutritious hot three course meal. We call this a Community Canteen.
Our Canteens serve a hot, healthy three-course meal every week using donated surplus food and offer a social sanctuary for everyone to enjoy. We work with supermarkets, greengrocers and markets to reduce and redirect their usable surplus food to our projects where we utilise a range of local chefs and volunteers to cook up a delicious lunch or supper. Get in touch if you want to get involved
The Canteens also improve well-being and develop a stronger sense of belonging, particularly for those who are elderly or socially isolated. We create spaces where everyone is welcome using a whole community approach so we get a great mix of ages and wonderful conversation.
Our Canteens bring people together to enjoy a meal without the stigma of receiving a handout. We also know that there is high need in our area and we specifically target vulnerable groups, including older people, those affected by addiction, ill mental health, low or no income parents and asylum seekers, and those who are unemployed.
79% of attendees said they returned to socialise with people they met there and friendships have continued outside of the meal, with guest attending events and dinners with each other.
