But the Good evening - haven't been on here for a while! We are mostly used to posting most things through Facebook, however its been mentioned a few times recently that people have tried to find us elsewhere and we are hopelessly not up to date. As the title states, things have changed, the last couple of years we have been so busy we barely had time to catch our breath. We saved a lot of food, we fed a lot of people, we met some amazing people and still got frustrated on a daily basis about the state of food waste and how it made us mad. BUT things are changing, several apps cropped up such as Too good to go which encouraged shops to sell off their end of day produce at reduced prices which was BRILLIANT, they also sold misshapen or odd sized fruit and veggies slightly cheaper. Also zero waste items, reuseable products, refill shops and end of range clearance websites are all now normal everyday occurances, the world is changing, ASDA is trialling refills on items such as cereal and pasta, lots of corner shops have refillable milk in glass bottles, we are all raving about shampoo bars and knitting dishcloths and making chutney with our end of day wonky vegetables, we were getting on board. THEN 2020 happened, and swiped us all sideways, we started the year off pledging to do our bit to save the environment, reduce out plastic consumption and generally try and be better people for the sake of our planet. The threat of COVID19 had been lingering for a while but we had no idea of what was to come, by March we were being told to stay home and the fear and uncertainty was suddenly very real. Things stopped, people shut their doors, supermarkets were cleared of toilet rolls and essential items in a way that felt almost apocalyptic. Hand sanitiser was as rare as hens teeth and we washed our hands constantly. But the most difficult thing was everything just stopped, no schools, no cinemas, no pubs, shops or coffee shops, city centres were eerily quiet and roads were deserted. The nature of our role in the local community changed almost overnight, we couldn't hold community lunches or events due to restrictions and social distancing, we also had to distance ourselves and staff and lone work on different days to prevent contamination. We changed our role as caterers and became food suppliers to people in the community who were isolated and shopping became a stressful and fruitless activity as the shelves remained empty. Everyone struggled during lockdown, people lost jobs and retreated further, in the beginning we enjoyed being at home with our loved ones and binging on netflix and baking endless banana bread, we cycled and did yoga and our animals were never so well walked, We had it lucky in Cornwall, we had the coast and the moors and woods to explore and wide open spaces, but domastic violence was on the rise, and stress of families cooped up with no money was taking its toll on everyone. Add to that the financial pressures, lack of decent food and lack of routine, people struggled.
We continued to collect food, cook meals and distributed it to people who needed it over the first few months of lock down, some weeks it was overwhelming and we had just so much food to deal with, other times we were scratching around to fill the boxes. Morrison's was amazing and gave us loads and loads of food to help which was fantastic, we distributed over a huge area, including shipping dried goods out to Camelford, Tintagle and the north. The month of August we moved kitchens so we could be in the centre of Liskeard, due to lack of finances we struggled during this period and were lucky enough to receive a grant through the lottery to allow us to do this, we are still building the kitchen but we are slowly getting there. Now that winter is approaching and lockdown has tightened again things are unsure once more, we have lost our sense of community in many ways, but gained it in so many others with people willing to help and try and bridge that gap for those who need it. We are trying to get food out to people who need it, reduce waste and reduce landfill and still maintain a sense of community where we can. We hope to be cooking again soon especially when people needing hot meals. One of the positive things which has come from these difficult times is the cooking classes, empowering people to be able to provide food for themselves and their families is both practical and a huge boost to the self worth of the the provider. We've often felt that cooking is deeply rooted in confidence and the ability to change and adapt and its lovely to be able to teach others to create their own meals. I'm going to sign off for now and show the cooking students success in its own post so they can shine like the absolute stars they are - thank you for reading :-) and thank you for your continued support in helping feed bellies NOT bins.
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October 2020
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