About us
In Oct 2018 Elgin Community Kitchen was formed, as a food based social enterprise the organisation provided:
In excess of 2000 meals to local children in the holidays
Healthy eating workshops for 80 children
25 weekly pay as you feel Fareshare markets
4 corporate buffets
Fully inclusive volunteering opportunities for 6 people
Work placements for 8 students
Chargeable day service for one young person
Employment for 6 people
2200 hot meals delivered and served to pensioners in their own homes
400 hot meals delivered to Age concern for dementia cafe service users
Partnership work with other social enterprises
Low cost healthy food to the Children centre users
The benefits to the local community from the list above include empowerment of local people, tacking poverty, promoting positive mental health, relieving isolation in older people, employment and many more.
A couple of our smiley volunteers.
Working to keep our local community fed with delicious meals.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to access the cafe for a month as it was based in a council building that was used as an emergency hub. However, we managed to use a local cafe to supply the much-needed meals to vulnerable people across Gateshead. The cafe continues to provide a hot meal delivery service for older and vulnerable residents of Gateshead, please get in touch via our contact page for more information. Once back in the cafe, we organized funding from Gateshead Housing Company and with the help of volunteers made and distributed over 500 meals to resettled Syrian families in the local area, a project that we now run from Gateshead Fell Cricket Club. We also worked in partnership with GEM Arts to provide funded vegetarian Indian meals to over 80 families per week. During this time we have had a chance to reflect on our first two years as a CIC and as with lots of other enterprises we are looking to diversify our activities. We feel our time as a cafe in the Elgin Centre has drawn to a close and now we are looking to broaden our offer to more than just food. We want to help Gateshead live its best life, the directors are all from here and have grown up around these streets. Between us, we have witnessed firsthand the problems facing our communities and would like to have a positive impact on these issues. Personally, we would like to help local people reach their full potential As a social enterprise needs to be sustainable and not rely on grants, one way we generate income is to offer chargeable work placements and job coaching to supported interns from Gateshead College. We also have the expertise and staff resources to offer a chargeable day service as part of our Aventurine Project.