Welcome to GCO
We may have been quiet over the last few months and in fact we have never really been that good at reporting on what we do. Before Covid-19 we were delivering hot meals to eight, sometimes nine pensioners around Gateshead as part of our Deals on Meals project. This project started in May 2018 not long after we took over the kitchen In Elgin Centre, which started as a training kitchen for people with barriers to employment. Soon we started to apply for funding and ran other projects to help fill the gap during the school holidays providing meals and cooking workshops to local children.
When lockdown started and older people were advised to shield the demand for our meal delivery service doubled, with the help of volunteers we were able to supply 25 meals per day delivered hot at lunch time. Unfortunately we were not able to continue our work placements and our students for this year had their term cut short. 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 to live it's best life, the directors are all from here and have grown up around these streets. Between us we have witnessed first hand 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.
This could be in the form of :
Budgeting and cooking healthy meals, including using Fareshare food
Cookery's cool- workshops to teach young carers and other children to cook for themselves
Helping with CV, job searches and overcoming barriers to employment
Providing Job coaches/mentors
Addressing issues around poverty
Promoting good mental health & creating a sense of well being through forest school, our wellness garden and horticulture
Create cohesion among resettled communities and promote inclusion
We would like to address many issues in the area and launch diverse projects to target specific social problems and issues. We truly want to be here for the people of Gateshead and welcome volunteers at all levels.