Community Enterprises PL12 have grown so much in recent years that we now need to expand, and bring more life to the heart of our community.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, our volunteers provided community help and support in partnership with other organisations and businesses. This resulted in several new projects, including a Community Fridge and Larder, and a Mobile Larder using our own community transport, which gather surplus food from various outlets (around 16 tonnes so far) and make it available free to the public (over 8,000 people so far).
We’ve been looking for premises to expand into, as we’re bursting at the seams at no 4… so we’re thrilled to say we’ve finally taken the keys to premises just 2 doors up from our Community Hub, a vacant former cafe at 8 Fore St. What was “The Kitchen” for many years will become the new, permanent home for our Community Fridge & Larder, Mobile Larder, Dementia Voice café, and Digital Inclusion, and allow us to expand our current work into a sustainable community food share service.
The Community Kitchen will aim to give local residents access to surplus food, some of which will be cooked into healthy homemade soups, snacks, and meals. By avoiding food waste in this way, we want to remove the stigma associated with receiving free food. We also aim to teach people basic cooking, nutrition, and budgeting skills, and we will organise various social activities on the premises centred around food. Our own Dementia Voice group will use it in this way.
The main elements of the Community Kitchen will be:
• A Community Fridge and Larder, including a base for our Mobile Larder, reducing food waste. (Food waste is one of the major contributors to CO2 emissions)
• A Community Kitchen, for cooking and learning
• A Community area, which will be used by local groups for social activities, including our Dementia Voice PL12 groups, and support for “digital inclusion”.
• Digital learning, including CV writing skills, for jobseekers.
• Jobseeker skills, including valuable volunteer experience helping in a retail or hospitality environment.
We will continue working in partnership with other organisations like Citizens Advice, Saltash Foodbank, and Link into Learning to fulfil community needs.
It’s going to take a lot of volunteer time and elbow grease to bring the building up to scratch, but we can’t wait to move in. We hope the Community Kitchen will be open by January 2022. Watch this space for updates!
Ever considered volunteering? If you have a few hours a month to spare, and you’re looking for a rewarding role in your community, we would love to hear from you. We have a wide range of roles, including helping with the Community Fridge or Mobile Larder, in the Community Shop, driving the community buses, collecting surplus food, or helping with the Dementia Voice groups, not to mention roles in our new Community Kitchen.
For further details about any of the above, pop in to our Hub at no 4 Fore St, call us on 01753 848348 or email hub@cepl12.co.uk.
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