Hello, we're about to open the very first Life Kitchen cookery school! We have had outstanding support from architects, building firms and kitchen appliance company, Fisher and Paykel (who are all giving their services for free, more on our brilliant helpers later!) now we need your help to get us over the final hurdle. The planning permission is imminent. We're just months away from opening. But we need your help.
'Life Kitchen is proving truly life-changing' The One Show
'I'm a huge fan of Ryan Riley and Life Kitchen' Nigella Lawson
Life Kitchen needs to raise £50,000 in order to update our electrical supply from Northern Powergrid (who by law can't give the power upgrade needed for free) and also, to get us started!
Whilst we have some fantastic brands supporting us, classes cost money and manpower. Our aim is to keep the classes free for people living with cancer. Living with cancer can cause financial strain on a lot of people and their families, that is why it is so important to us to make sure our classes are always accessible and free of charge. To keep this going we need your help! Whether you can donate £1 (one cauliflower for a class) or £1000 (a big step towards upgrading the power for the school), it’s all needed, necessary and very much appreciated by us, and all of the people Life Kitchen helps.
£50,000 will get us:
Electrical power upgrade for the cookery school (Northern Powergrid to deliver this)
A permanent staff member to run the cookery school and co-ordinate classes
A subsided program of cookery events for the community - this will allow us to run non Life Kitchen cookery classes at a discount for local people
To kit out the cookery school with pans, plates, cutlery and stock a basic cookery pantry
Continued recipe development for Life Kitchen and so much more!
Nearly a year on from the launch there has been a fantastic response from the public, press and well-known faces including Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and many more. There has even been an award, we're now the award-winning Life Kitchen (Best Ethical Food Project 2018) thanks to public and The Observer newspaper.
In February 2018, we launched our first classes at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s world-famous River Cottage in Devon and ever since the response has been overwhelming! What we’ve learned from our first ever class is that Life Kitchen provides fun, flavour and an escape from a time in peoples lives that can be incredibly difficult. It's been a fantastic year and we're hoping 2019 will be bigger and better and most importantly, we can help more people.
Our beautiful new school will be in Sunderland (founder Ryan’s home town) and will be in a Grade 2 listed Victorian Gate lodge, location details revealed soon.
The School will have frequent Life Kitchen cookery classes as well as a community outreach space for local people. As well as for people from all over the UK and abroad to come and be part of the Life Kitchen Community. The school will also double as a food workshop studio for photographers, bloggers and supper clubs to help us pay for the continued up-keep and running of the space. The school will have disability access, including an adjustable workbench. And of course, the Life Kitchen classes will remain FREE to people affected by cancer.
After the tremendous response to our launch of Life Kitchen as a charity initiative, we need YOUR help to move to the next stage. Please pledge below and get one our brilliant rewards.
The incredible people making the cookery school happen for free:
Sir Robert McAlpine -
Building Contractor
Ryder Architecture -
Architect
Jasper Kerr consulting -
Structural engineer
Desco -
Services engineer
One environments -
Landscape architect
Lichfields -
Planning consultant
S.A.J transport consultants -
Transport consultant
Restaurant Design Associate's -
Catering consultant
Landform surveys -
Measured building surveyor
Ward Hadaway LLP -
Legal consultant
Fisher and Paykel -
Catering equipment supplier
Turner and Townsend -
Project manager
Thank you so so much.
Lots of love,
Ryan Riley and the Life Kitchen Team
Twitter: @ryanrileyy @LifeKitchen
Instagram: @LifeKitchen @LifeKitchenCookery
Watch our BBC Documentary here:
