A joint community venture by Pilmeny Development Project and FENIKS has received a major funding boost from Harbour Homes via the National Lottery’s Community Fund. This will allow its weekly Multi-Cultural Cook Along to continue until at least March 2025.
Harbour Homes’ social enterprise subsidiary, Harbour Connections, offered £14,225 funding to Pilmeny Development Project as part of its local placemaking work.
Mary O’Connell who runs the project said: “It’s an amazing group of people.
“To see how they all come together while cooking, playing bingo and getting competitive during Play Your Cards Right after the meal is brilliant.”
One attendee, aged 83, has been attending the events for several months now. He said: “Just look around the table, I’m English, there are Scots, Canadians, Polish and Irish here and we all get on really well.”
The funding will also help provide transport allowing group members to attend the cook-alongs at the Pilmeny Development Project Youth Centre.
In addition to the Multi-Cultural Community Meals, the funding will go towards supporting Older People’s Meals and Pilmeny Development Project Youth Centre community food provisions for their youth clubs.
John Murray, Placemaking Manager at Harbour Homes said: “There’s a genuine warmth and togetherness about the group which speaks volumes about the work being done here.
“It’s a privilege for Harbour Homes to be in a position to help support projects like this.”
PILTON Community Health Project have updated their Food Access & Sharing Points document.
Trying to get by on whatever income we have can be incredibly challenging for many of us, particularly in the winter months.
Take a look on here to find our where you can get a meal, hot drink or groceries.
If you’d like a hard copy of this to take home, please pop in and ask. Also, please share with any neighbours or local friends to make sure everyone knows about these.
Fresh Start’s Meet & Eat sessions have been so successful that we are now adding an additional session on Wednesday evenings, starting tomorrow, Wednesday 26th October!
The Wednesday Meet & Eat will be a dinner time meal, between 5-6.30pm and will ensure local people and families have a hot meal in a cosy, friendly setting.
Remember, Meet & Eat is a FREE service and open to all.
Please share around your networks and tell your friends!
In response to the cost of living crisis, Fresh Start will be hosting a weekly community meal (Meet and Eat) on Wednesday evenings and Friday afternoons at Fresh Start Kitchen, 28-30 Ferry Road Drive – see flier (above).
This is for anyone you can think of who would benefit specifically from a free two course hot meal in a safe and welcoming environment.
We will begin the Wednesday evening Meet and Eat on 26th October, and this will run until March 2023.
Our Friday afternoon Meet and Eats are currently running as usual:
Scran Academy’s work with young people has been recognised in two separate Industry Awards.
On Thursday 09 September 2021, John Loughton [founder] and the North Edinburgh charity won the Apprenticeships and Skills category at the 2021 Public Sector Catering Awards, that celebrate those working within public sector catering.
Scran are also a finalist in the Charity of the Year category of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations’ (SCVO) Scottish Charity Awards 2021, celebrating the best of Scotland’s voluntary sector and voted for by industry professionals and the public. The winner will be announced at an online ceremony, hosted by Sally Magnusson tomorrow (Friday 1 October).
The Apprenticeships and Skills Award, sponsored by Brakes, recognised that Scran Academy’s catering operations are an integral part of Scran Academy and are essential to delivering confidence-building experiences for young people.
These include the Scran Café which is located in the NHS Comely Bank Centre and currently creates a welcoming haven for frontline NHS workers and clinical trainees.
The charity also runs its Scran Van, which delivers free community meals, feeds youth groups and supports families across the city. These provide our young people with opportunities to learn, gain new skills, work as a team and solve problems in real-life situations.
Scran Academy was up against stiff competition from across the whole of the UK, including Hospitals, Universities, large catering companies and industry bodies. However, thanks to its team of volunteers, staff and young people, Scran’s unique model of bespoke educational support and training won the day.
Scran pipped, amongst others, University College Birmingham, Compass Group UK and Ireland and The National Association of Care Catering to take the award.
For the Charity of the Year Award, SCVO has recognised Scran for ‘coordinating a coalition of charities that produced, packaged and delivered nearly 150,000 meals during the first Covid-19 lockdown, supporting over 1,000 people per week at its height’.
None of this would have be possible without the 220 local people who gave tens-of-thousands of hours back to their communities. In 2020 SCRAN also delivered its most successful Christmas Hamper campaign, selling 222 in total.
The organisation also merged with Prep Table Scotland, opened the Scran Café in partnership with NHS Lothian and launched the Scran Van food truck to tackle holiday hunger across Edinburgh.
Scran Academy founder John Loughton, and Catering Manager, Will Bain, attended the Public Sector Catering Awards ceremony in London.
Scran Academy Catering Manager, Will Bain, said: “It blew me away to be up against catering managers with hundreds, sometimes thousands of employees, and for them to give us recognition for the work we do at Scran.”
Founder of Scran Academy, John Loughton BEM, said: “This nomination is a real vote of confidence in our community work and a recognition in the power of food to change lives.
“Will Bain and his team-work magic at Scran, to ensure food is positive for all people, not just those that can afford it. At Scran we do hand-ups, not just hand-outs and young people go on to change their own lives once they realise people believe in them.”
Scran Academy’s focus is to help young people from across North Edinburgh to overcome learning and life barriers and lead more meaningful lives.
The community-based school Scran runs – the Scran Academy – uses food to support learners disengaged from mainstream school to access qualifications and work.
Despite being less than four years old, the charity has grown and last year scaled its impact to provide meals for thousands of people throughout the pandemic across the city.
