NAME OF ORGANISATION: Dartmoor Community Kitchen Hub
LOCATION: Devon
YEAR FOUNDED: 2014
ABOUT: Eating alone is often a reality for elderly people within our communities, and they can end up feeling isolated from the rest of the world. Dartmoor Community Kitchen Hub combats this issue by distributing protein-packed ready meals to the elderly in rural areas, and running a community café 7 days a week.
INVESTMENT PURPOSE: To refit a property, allowing for a kitchen and community space to be built for customers to enjoy food outside of their homes.
INVESTMENT AMOUNT: £143,000
DATE OF INVESTMENT: October 2018, May 2019
SOURCE OF INVESTMENT: Health & Wellbeing Challenge Fund
IMPACT: Health, Wellbeing & Social Care; Community & Local Democracy; Food & Farming
ABOUT: Almost one in three people over 65 years old are at risk of, or suffer from, malnutrition. That’s why Stella West-Harling, Founder of the community kitchen and MBE recipient, combined her compassion for helping her neighbours with forty years of award-winning work in the food industry to cook up the social enterprise. Dartmoor Community Kitchen aims to promote healthy eating and support the elderly and vulnerable, through community-based education. With a team made up of local chefs, and exclusively working with quality Dartmoor businesses providing local food, Dartmoor Community Kitchen goes above and beyond for their customers.
PURPOSE OF INVESTMENT: After trying out their nutritious meals in a care home setting successfully, the next step was to set up an affordable café in the local area of Bovey Tracey. The purpose of the investment from the Health and Wellbeing Challenge Fund was to act as working capital in order to convert the Bovey Tracey building into a kitchen and community eating space. This means customers now have a centralized point for eating in a community setting, and the team’s bigger premises allows for the organisation to double its capacity.
Peter Clarke, Managing Director at Dartmoor Community Kitchen Hub: “I found Resonance very effective and efficient. They’re very nice people, and that to me is really important. It is vital that we have Resonance to help social enterprises tackle issues of today. Without support, not-for-profits will struggle. Resonance is easy to work with, and they care about what you’re doing.”
Tom Crook, Investment Manager at Resonance: “It’s a fantastic example of a business model with the community at the heart of its decision-making. The team is inspiring and extremely innovative in the way it uses its experience and passion to tackle a number of issues ranging from nutritious food, mental wellbeing and social isolation.”
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