Community Kitchen | Community Kitchen

About us

The Community Kitchen brings people together through food. The power of food links to our deepest memories, connects people from different backgrounds and helps share skills and inspiration.

We run community cookery, gardening, food and nature activities. We support local people who are experiencing poverty, ill health & marginalisation.

Our work helps improve diet, health and wellbeing – and builds skills, confidence and connections. Activities like eating at our shared dining table can be a lifeline – helping to reduce loneliness, make the most of limited budgets and spark new interests that lead to happier, healthier lives.

We were established as a registered charity in August 2023. We received support to setup from Brighton & Hove Food Partnership and continue to work closely with BHFP and its cookery school.

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Impact

In our second full year of operation (2025-26), we worked with 400+ people living in poverty, isolation or with mental / physical health conditions and ran 50 sessions – including:

Community cookery classes at the Community Kitchen in central Brighton – lessons on essential skills such as batch cooking, low energy cooking, fish cookery & bread baking.

Sessions focused on reducing food waste, using up leftovers & creative cookery plus a new, two-day cookery leaders’ course for those who cook at local community food projects.

Fortnightly cookery sessions for people living with dementia & their carers at our much-loved ‘Time for Tea’ group.

Regular ‘participation panel’ sessions with cookery participants where they gave their ideas for future activities and how we can support them best.

Outreach & demonstration sessions at neighbourhood venues including local food banks, community centres & the local shopping centre.

70 volunteers gave 1,000 hours of to support activities in the last year – the majority attended cookery classes to support participants to get the best out of the sessions.

Our evaluations show how we are improving lives:

%

feel more connected to other people

%

are more confident to follow a recipe

%

have tried new foods

%

have learned about other services & activities

In their own words, we hear how people feel we have helped:

Feeling empowered that I can cook on my own!

I can’t wait to make bread with my kids

I will cook more from scratch… use recipes to eat healthier… and do another class at the Kitchen!

Enjoyed everything – connecting, cooking, laughing.

Overcoming anxiety of meeting new people and being inspired.

Accessible and friendly environment… 100% recommend.

Love this course. Learnt so much and will definitely be cooking more food, less ready made meals and batch cooking too!

As our work expands, we know these impacts will grow too – getting families cooking together, seeing people connecting with each other & joining new activities, volunteering and learning new skills.

Our participants are living with challenging personal circumstances which leave them at high risk of worsening physical & mental health and all the associated personal & societal costs. Our sociable, supportive activities can provide a bridge & a lifeline to help them build a more positive future.