Kitchen Therapy East Kent

EAT WELL -  GET ACTIVE -  BE CONNECTED 

This project is about improving your quality of life by eating well, being active,  community engagement and climate action. 

Kitchen Social needs to improve its space to encourage & support its diverse community to eat together, become more physically active & connect with our beautiful beaches. 

The passion in expanding the existing Community Deli and delivering this Nature & Arts Based Activity Centre & Cookery School comes from Lucy's own life experiences & global travels. We all need and deserve access and the opportunity to live our best life. 

Lucy grew up in Scotland with her father, a botanist; spending her weekends outdoors in the Cleish Hills flying her peregrine & kestrel; forgaing for mushrooms, berries and collecting agate, Elie Rubies etc Then home a delicious home cooked meal. 

At school she loved learning and enjoyed sports particularly netball & badminton.

As Lucy has travelled around the world she realised how social eating & team sport improved self-esteem,  academic performance, depression, obesity etc and brought a connectedness.  Lucy also realised that many households were not afforded the access & opportunities to good quality food, to the benefits of a nature based education and being open to different types of fun & games outside.

Following City burnout Lucy moved Thanet. She began rebuilding her life and met like minded people who became friends; these friends supported her passion and ideas around food & nature. Kitchen Social & Cookery Club was born. 

The project began in a leaky garage during lockdown delivering food donations to low income households and teaching families to cook on their door steps. Kitchen Social is now housed in a small unit, which it has outgrown. 

The team is made up of 10 volunteers and staff who collect, quality check, repack & re-distribute food surplus & waste from retailers & local producers through a Community Deli & Mini Markets. Alongside this project the Team also deliver an arts & nature based outdoor children's holiday camp incorporating ball sports, kite flying, stretch yoga etc. Kitchen Social is ready to bring more people together.

The money raised will be used to secure & improve  a larger premises; make it safe by updating the electrics and making it fire compliant. We wish to create a space - where as you step in - you relax, exhale and want to participate in our activities.  

The Cliftonville premises needs to repurposed through a refurbishment programme. Kitchen Social will expand its existing Community Deli: the new generation of food bank focused on providing access to good quality affordable food using food surplus & food waste alongside teaching food nutrition & cookery, to low income households And open a Cookery School, Nature & Activity Programme based on the beach to include a variety of ball games, kite flying, stretch yoga, badminton etc. A Community Hub   

The new Community Deli,  Cookery School Nature & Activity Centre will be launched in the late Summer. There is no education Nature, Cookery & Activity programme in Kent. 

Thank you for reading our story; your support will mean the world to us, the children and a lot of low income families. 

Please click on the link below, to donate whatever you can afford.

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