The latest winners of a community projects fund, launched by British cooking appliance brand, Stoves, have been revealed.
The £20,000 Stoves Community Kitchens campaign aims to place the kitchen at the heart of local communities, helping to transform the kitchen facilities of community groups and charities. The latest round saw almost 200 nominations from across the country, with more than 2,500 votes being cast in the public Facebook vote.
The first prize of £5,000 of Stoves cooking appliances of their choice went to the Moorland Community Centre in Splott, Cardiff, which provides hot food and company for older people within the community, including serving two courses of freshly prepared and cooked food every lunchtime.
The prize means the Community Centre can replace its old and temperamental appliances to further improve the vital support it provides.
Moorland Community Centre manager Dorothy Templeman said: “We are delighted to win first prize in the Stoves Community Kitchen competition. We’re really grateful to everyone who took the time to vote for us and we are really looking forward to receiving our appliances which will really add to the efficiency of the service we offer to the older folk in the community, and make our kitchen a more attractive and functional place.”
South Tyneside-based charity Hospitality and Hope, which provides grassroots support to the homeless and deprived, operating soup kitchens, food and clothing banks and offer shower and laundry facilities, finished in second place, winning £3,000 of appliances. The charity will use the appliances to help fit out its new community café.
Tees Valley-based community and schools project, Little Sprouts CIC will use the £2,000 of appliances it won for finishing in third place, to support a community café for homeless people in Stockton. Little Sprouts delivers cooking workshops within the community and the new café will provide low cost, home cooked meals to vulnerable people.
Jonathan Casley, managing director of Stoves’ parent company Glen Dimplex Home Appliances, said: “Community projects which provide support, care, comfort and activities play a vital role in towns, cities and villages across the country and we are delighted to be able to help some of them in a small way.
“We continue to be astounded by the volume of entries that Community Kitchens generates and are very touched by some of the work these organisations do. We look forward to continuing to support them in the next phase of Community Kitchens.”
Stoves Community Kitchens will reopen for new applications in March 2017.
