Sanatan Community Service is a CIC whose aims are to prevent Food Wastage and address Food Poverty.
The Community Kitchen & Food Bank initiative was initiated in 2020 during Covid lockdown period, with an objective to provide hot & nutritious meal for the homeless, elderly and vulnerable people. We started during the lockdown, however with the rising cost of living and economic conditions, we felt there is a genuine need in the community to keep this initiative going.
We are fully volunteer-led (no paid staff) , non-profit organisation with approximately 20 individuals who are religiously committed to the cause & “Give back to the community” attitude. We work in partnership with Fareshare, Neighbourly and with various local supermarkets directly. The excess food donated by various organisations is collected, triaged, and made available to the needy on a weekly basis. Our innovative kitchen volunteers prepare delicious & nutritious hot meals from these saved ingredients.
Currently, we are involved in four different projects based on our two objectives: minimizing food wastage and food poverty.
Feed the Homeless – Every Saturday morning on average 150 hot meals mostly, Indian curry and rice are cooked and delivered to homeless shelters. In addition to this our dedicated kitchen volunteer cooks the meals for
Community Food bank - The food donations collected from various super markets are made available to the community. Currently 160 families are registered and average 70 families come to collect the free groceries every Saturday morning between 9 AM and 11 AM.
Community Kitchen – The food bank consumers are offered the hot meals either to eat-in or takeaway every Saturday mornings.
Free School Meal – We proudly participate in Free School Meals scheme in Nottingham, providing average 400 meals to the children from deprived background, who are eligible for free school meals during the school holidays.
We truly believe food wastage not only exacerbates food insecurity, but it also causes severe damage to our environment. Along with the food wastage, we are also unnecessarily damaging precious resources that went into producing this food including the use of land, natural resources, and therefore the impact on the environment. In a world where people are dying from hunger, one-third of all food produced is thrown away every year. With these statistics in place, there is a huge need to reduce this environmental footprint along with the challenge to feed more people while wasting less of what we already produce. Our initiative is our contribution to connect these two dots: save the food wastage and deliver it to who needs the most minimizing food poverty.
Fulfilling the feeling regarding the need to ‘give back’ and ‘contribute to the society’ is unparalleled. It is statistically proven that people who volunteer regularly are healthier both physically and mentally. In addition to the health benefits, volunteering gives people a sense of purpose. Hence, we strongly believe in building such a legacy and especially promoting youth participation through volunteering; offering opportunities for young people to contribute to our projects, while building their skills and professional experience. A number of young people are committed on a weekly basis to volunteering in our initiatives.
Our vision over time is to diversify into other humanitarian projects with particular focus on mental and physical health, combating isolation etc.. We have a confidence that there are endless endeavors waiting to add a value to our community and make this world a better place together…