Exciting funding news for our Cooking at Home project!
We have some really exciting news to share! Last week, we received a phone call to let us know that our funding application from the HM Government's Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, was successful! The six-month £24,900 grant will enable us to extend our Cooking at Home + Lunch Crowd projects, reaching more families at risk of food poverty during the school holidays via recipe-led grocery boxes, whilst enhancing the online support offered to all to support healthy home cooking.
Our Cooking at Home project was started in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In ‘normal’ times, in the school holidays, we would open two school kitchens to support partner-led holiday clubs, and serve free, hot meals for the families attending. The families, referred into the clubs by local schools, are at risk of food poverty and so as advocates for good food for all we are proud to support via our Lunch Crowd initiative.
When lockdown happened, our concerns for families impacted by the extended school closures and the financial implications of the pandemic where echoed by those running the clubs. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions in place, clubs aren’t able to run - but the organisers and volunteers have seen a huge increase in referrals, and so have been offering virtual support and food parcels. For those usually attending the club, we normally also provide a take-home bag of groceries to match healthy recipes to support families during the school holidays - this was where our efforts have been placed since April.
This year, we wanted to do more in this area, and so we worked on our Cooking at Home project, which piloted over the summer holidays. The project and online support is free and open access to all - offering healthy family friendly recipes, cook-along videos, guidance and a dedicated peer-to-peer support Facebook group. For those attending the Lunch Crowd clubs, we provided the groceries for two recipes each week, enabling them to fully benefit from the project. You can read more about our summer support here.
Unfortunately, our funding did not allow us to keep up with the increased demand, and so we set about applying for grants so that we could help more families in Southampton. For those we did support, however, the feedback was really positive - you can read more about Steph’s experiences in our case study.
Both our Lunch Crowd and Cooking at Home projects rely solely on grants, donations and fundraising. This incredible grant - the largest in the history of City Catering - will enable us to extend our support from 57 families to 250 families over the October, December and February school holidays; and it will allow us to support an even wider audience through our online support. Whilst is represents only a fraction of the need in Southampton, with 35% of its children' living in poverty, we are delighted to be able to support our partner-led clubs, schools and families in the local area more than ever before!
Families will be able to benefit from this project via referrals from our Member schools. We are currently working with our schools on this, and look forward to be able to grow both the Cooking at Home and Lunch Crowd projects. We can’t wait to keep everyone updated on the progress, here and on our social media accounts. You can also sign up to our mailing list for updates.