Chester charity offers free cooking lessons for those living on the street
A Chester charity is now offering free weekly cooking sessions to help move people away from a life on the streets.
In 2015, Soul Kitchen began as a group of friends who wanted to do more to help the growing number of people sleeping rough on the streets of Chester.
Today the charity operates with a group of around 50 volunteers, to support and feed anybody experiencing loneliness, food poverty or homelessness.
They seek to help and enable people to move away from a life on the streets, build relationships and provide activities to improve people's mental and physical health.
Soul Kitchen works in partnership with the council and the statutory service provider for homelessness in Chester, and operates an open drop-in every Saturday, where volunteers prepare and serve hot food, and chat with those who come in.
Chair of Soul Kitchen, Helen Anthony, said: "It's an open drop-in. You don't even have to be homeless, you can just be struggling.
"Whether it's food poverty or loneliness, our doors are open to everyone. We don't grill people, we don't ask for any information at all. It's just an open-drop in."
Whilst Helen was pleased with the Saturday drop-ins, and the support they provided, she wanted to come up with ways to equip those living out on the street with the tools to move out of their situation, and on to the next step of their lives.
As a result, she developed volunteer-led cooking sessions, which she coined, Soul in a Bowl.
These three hour sessions are run weekly, with two in Chester and one in Ellesmere Port.
People can self-refer or get referred by one of their partnership agencies. The team can also refer people that they come into contact with on a Saturday night.
Attendees are encouraged to choose their own menu for the following week.
The volunteers then shop for it, and hire out the kitchens. Attendees spend three hours prepping, cooking, washing up and eating together with the volunteers at the end of the session.
Explaining the element of eating together, Helen said: "It gives us the opportunity to talk to people, to build relationships and find out in what way we can best help them.
"The food is bloody good by the way; the food our guys put together is amazing."
Once they have regularly attended for eight weeks, they get a personalised apron with their name on it.
When they are ready and show interest, participants are offered the chance to sit the level two Food Hygiene for Catering exam.
Nine people so far this year have successfully completed the exam, and two people have since decided to go to catering college, starting in September.
Soul Kitchen also conducts a walk-about on a Wednesday, where four experienced volunteers go out and do a welfare check, as well as give out hot food to those on the street.
This gives them another opportunity to check in on people in the community.
Explaining the importance of volunteering, Helen said: "Give it a go. "You get a huge sense of achievement from knowing that you've actually made a difference to somebody's day.
"I think there is so much we can do to help and support people, not necessarily just the individuals, which we do and we want to try and empower them to move forward, but also the system.
"You know, to have a voice with the people who make the decisions, to say, actually, have you thought about doing it in a different way?
"It's about being able to work with them and be consulted, if you like, and have an input, have a say or an opinion that's listened to about how things are run and maybe be able to influence that and change that for the better."
To volunteer, donate or find out more about Soul Kitchen click here.
New chester Jobs Section Launched!!
Vacancies updated hourly!!
Click here: chester jobs
Share:
