Reduce loneliness of 300 elderly people in London

We continue to see many guests join us at our Community Canteens, especially as the Cost of Living crisis deepens.

Every week, whatever the weather, our wonderful volunteers have turned up and put their hands to the task of transforming surplus food into a three course meal. We have even provided work experience to a young man at a local SEN school. More and more corporate groups are also taking on the challenge of enriching the community through food.

We've still got plenty of spaces for volunteering - why not consider coming down and helping us on Monday (at Elephant and Castle) or Friday (Tooting)

Links:

• https://www.be-enriched.org/get-involved

There has been plenty going on across Be Enriched recently.

Canteens Project

Following cautiously delivered festive events in December, both Castle and the Graveney Canteens reopened in January.

We continue to be grateful for the support of our dedicated, and many regular, volunteers. As COVID restrictions have eased, we are also starting to receive more expressions of interest from corporative groups, organisations and colleges to support our work at the canteens.

The Food Bus

With many services normally available to families over the festive period limited due to COVID, our Food Bus team, supported by our sister social enterprise Brixton People's Kitchen (BPK), worked up until New Year's Eve making sure the communities of Kennington, Roehampton, Stockwell and Tooting had assistance with making healthy meals then and into the new year.

Our food van was packed full with food packages, which were delivered to convenient pick-up points for ease of access by families living in the same area.

Wandsworth Food Partnership (WFP)

In February, we brought together the WFP for its first meeting of 2022. The discussion focused on the cost-of-living crisis, and guest speakers from Feeding Britain and SW Leap both talked in-depth about what could be done to further support local residents as they face the challenge of rising food and energy costs.

The group also discussed Affordable Food Clubs and considered the potential for setting one up in Wandsworth. This will be the focus of the next meeting.

WFP also announced it has £5000 to offer to the members to help setup a new project that would benefit the borough’s food system.

General

Since the start of the new year, we have welcomed three new members to our team. Kumiko has joined us as our replacement Volunteer Coordinator, Courtney has taken up one of our Project Assistant internships, while Ruby, who was one of two Communications Interns, has joined us permanently as Kemi’s PA and the lead for WFP.

In January, both Be Enriched and BPK partnered with the Staunch Book Prize, supporting its efforts to celebrate books where no woman is assaulted, especially in the thriller genre. As a female-led organisation, this is an issue close to our hearts and one we are all proud to support.