“C” stands for Community
The letter C resonates in ways we had never thought of over this past year. Everyone’s experience is different: for some a long string of loss and grief; desire paths hidden and lost. But for me, C doesn’t represent Covid-19, but Community — the stranger that crinkles their eyes at us, demonstrating their smile of solidarity above the anonymous mask —the caring neighbour that shops for us when we were unwell — and most certainly it will be the organisation that creates delicious home-made meals for us when we can no longer afford it.
In the mid-2000’s when I worked as a volunteer for ChangeKitchenCIC, an organisation supporting adults affected by homelessness or addiction back into employment through food — & I am still sooo enthusiastic about the team’s delicious, hand-crafted vegan food feeding both your soul and your body— it became a sobering realisation that we are all only one missed pay day, missed rent or missed mortgage payment away from becoming unable to feed ourselves or our families. ChangeKitchen has grown from strength to strength, and a recent campaign to support those most in need in south Birmingham has seen the team rustle up over 30,000 community meals. A community that has the highest level of child poverty outside London, where 41.6 per cent of children’s families are struggling to get by.
I think we should be all sitting at that table to be part of this change: to feed families and kids within our community—and to enable us to be part of the community that drives it. The ChangeKitchen team are using a gofundme campaign to try to raise the funding to “cook up even more community” between now and July: the pandemic has reduced every community business’ ability to cover their outgoings: so could you personally support them? Or if are you a community-minded organisation able to offer sponsorship as part of your drive for your own CSR, then please contact Birgit Kehrer to find out more.
Thank you to the Community of humans that read this far: I am crinkling my eyes at you, from behind my mask!
