+ est. £24146.75
No one goes hungry 2022. Help secure our Community Meal Service so we can provide meals to households in Hackney who need support with food.
by Sarah Bentley in London, Greater London, United Kingdom
If we reach our stretch target we will have the capacity to make and deliver more meals and take people off our waiting list and get them on to the service quicker. Sadly we currently always have a waiting list of households who need food support. It would also give us the capacity to embed a chefs training element into the meal service.
We want no one in our community to go hungry in 2022.
We believe everyone should have access to enough nutritious, tasty food of their preference.
The UK has more than enough food for everyone to be well nourished. But the reality is 8 million people go hungry on a daily basis. This is wrong.
Our meal service tackles this injustice with nutritious, plant-based, culturally representative meals delivered by cycle couriers to our community members who need it most.
The community meal service was launched in March 2020 as an emergency response to the COVID19 crisis.
Many of our community members were struggling to access food and were putting themselves at risk to go shopping.
Fast forward to Autumn 2021 and the community meal service is as needed now more than ever. Please help us to sustain it throughout 2022.
WHY DO PEOPLE NEED FOOD SUPPORT?
Our community members face many challenges.
Their life circumstances include being made suddenly redundant and having no savings to keep them going until benefits start, which is often delayed. Living in temporary accommodation without proper cooking facilities. Facing serious mental health crisis. Recovering from trauma such as abuse or an accident or sudden chronic health issue. Living in working poverty where their wages are less than benefit levels. Having severe learning and support needs. Being elderly and disabled. Or are a family or single person household living in long term poverty.
Our community members are resilient, skilled, talented unique and special - but there are always times when things go wrong, and extra support is needed.
HOW DOES THE MEAL SERVICE WORK?
Today our in-house team of chefs and volunteers prepare over 1200 culturally varied meals a week. To develop menu items we have regular input from our community members who tell us what flavours and dishes would bring them nourishment and comfort.
The meals are delivered in bulk - 3 on Tuesdays and 3 on Thursdays - by our dedicated team of paid and volunteer cycle couriers to nourish people throughout the week.
Each meal costs us £2.50 to make including labour costs, ingredients, packaging, no-carbon cycle delivery and follow up welfare calls.
Our service is more than a meal. It's care. It's connection. It's community.
Our collaborative and ever evolving approach to building food resilience means our community meal recipients can participate in other Made In Hackney services. These include online and face to face cookery and food growing classes, varied and life enriching volunteering opportunities and have one-on-one diet and cooking focused telephone mentoring.