We are proud to share that the Community Kitchen featured as the headline local project for the Southeast in the BBC’s Red Nose Day coverage for 2026.
The coverage featured our amazing volunteer & participant Sam (pictured above), sharing the story of how our work supported her wellbeing & skills.
The Red Nose Day campaign celebrates work funded by Comic Relief, which will enable us to run cookery workshops at local food banks and for people in poverty over the coming months.
Here is a brief transcript of Sam’s story:
“I just couldn’t breathe at some points, I’d literally have to just sit on the floor and catch my breath and then get up and carry on. The doctor’s put me on antidepressants, which helped but just numbed it.
The Community Kitchen is definitely my happy place. It’s a place that’s helped me find who I am, not just being mum, or running around for everyone else.
I started by coming as a community participant, years ago, because I have young children and a disabled husband that I look after, to build me up and help me with a lot of mental health problems that I suffered from. Coming out of lockdown, I was finding things overwhelming. I felt like I’d lost Sam, and trying to just find my feet again was really really hard. I was very much doubting myself as a mum, doubting myself if I had value, what I could offer our family and other people.
After doing the mental health & food awareness course that they run here, I became a volunteer. So I’ve been volunteering now for two years. It feels really good to come to a place like this and realIy find who I was, and get that feeling back of actually I do have skills, I do have things that I can offer to society, to the community, to my family.”
