Sainsbury’s Westwood has teamed up with the Summer Kitchen scheme as part of its 150th birthday celebrations.
Staff at the store will be pitching in to volunteer 600 hours at the Summer Kitchen – which launched last year and provided free meals, both eat in and takeaway, three days a week at Drapers Mills school in Margate and St Christopher’s Church in Ramsgate.
Thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, it was run by Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet with Drapers Mills school, Get Out Get Active (GOGA) Thanet, Fareshare, Asda, Windmill Allotments, Geoff Philpott’s farm, Your Leisure and county councillors Barry Lewis and Karen Constantine.
Sharon had a team of four professionals and a small army of volunteers helping out in the project which was funded by Cllr Lewis and Cllr Constantine.
During the scheme some 1,642 meals were served.
Summer Kitchen Episode 2 will take place during this year’s school holidays at Dame Janet primary in Ramsgate and a Margate venue to be confirmed.
Sainsbury’s Westwood staff will be rolling up their sleeves at the kitchen, working in Margate on Modays and Fridays and Ramsgate on Wednesdays from July 29-August 9 and then Margate on Mondays and Ramsgate on Fridays during August 12-28.
Sainsbury’s organiser Rebecca Lane said: “We are celebrating Sainsbury’s 150 birthday by bringing people together in our community.
“We will be at the Summer Kitchen from 2pm (all days) onwards to entertain and support the cooking.”
Kitchen scheme boss Sharon Goodyer is opening up volunteering opportunities with three welcome sessions taking place at Sainsbury’s Westwood Cross next month.
The sessions are on June 3,4,5 from 9.30am to 11am.
Sharon said: “Anybody and everybody is welcome. You can do as much or as little as you like. We can give you free level 2 food hygiene training and then you can come and cook, serve, wash up and gossip and giggle in the kitchen .You could bring a few crochet hooks and some odd balls of wool with you and teach some of us how to crochet.
“Come to one of the welcome sessions and you will be part of Summer Kitchen Episode 2 right from the start. Come and make Summer Kitchen what you want it to be for yourself and your friends. We provide the venue, the insurance, the focus and some professional back up to make sure the food is delicious, healthy and safe and the sports are done safely, after that it is up to you.”
As well as free meals Summer Kitchen Episode 2 will be offering free activities, collaborative games, snacks and drinks, a social hub for families, energetic activity encouraged and led by professionals and trained volunteers.
There will be beach volleyball and pickleball and Sainsburys will be arranging free coaches to take people to the forest school, travel to the beach for volleyball and to go gleaning for local fruit and veg in local farmers’ fields.
Dame Janet will be helping the scheme with dry food storage and Chris Barton from the Ramsgate Town Team) has volunteered his ‘man power.’
Financial support again comes from county councillors Barry Lewis and Karen Constantine. Sainsbury’s is also supporting the scheme with a ‘trolley appeal’ in store to help the kitchen with vital ingredients.
To find out more about the Summer Kitchen find Sharon at the Windmill allotments strawberry fair on Friday May 31 (she’ll be the one in the Sandwich board!), follow the facebook page here or pop into Sainsburys Westwood and read the boards in the foyer.
Summer Kitchen Episode 2 details
Running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2pm-5pm for 5 weeks starting Monday, July 29.
Two school sites, Dame Janet Primary Academy in Ramsgate and one in Margate to be confirmed.
The scheme is also being joined by isle children’s centres, The Little Art Cart and the Street Games Fit and Fed programme.
There will also be hula hooping, belly dancing, flower arranging, crochet, sour dough bread , board games to play, cookery lessons. singers and a Talking Shop. Last year topics included racism and child abuse.
Food is coming from local allotments and farms, Kent gleaners, Fare Share, Thanet Earth, Gina’s bakery , Principals and Sainsburys.
Last year community volunteers also ran a women’s advocacy, swap shop, a shop for free sanitary and toilet items and free haircuts.
Sainsbury’s marks 150 years
It was 150 years ago this week that John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury set up the first Sainsbury’s at 173 Drury Lane in London.
The company has lived through six monarchs, 26 Prime Ministers and two World Wars, but just 11 CEOs.
John James and Mary Ann wanted to set up store that would offer people safe food so they focused on cleanliness and hygiene, at a time when this wasn’t a priority for many other retailers.
The first Sainsbury’s sold only 3 products: butter, milk and eggs.
However they soon realised that customers wanted a much wider range of products and wanted to be able to visit stores across the country.
So Sainsbury’s adapted and within 30 years there were 98 new branches, with the 100th store opening in 1903.
During the First World War the stores employed the first female sales assistants and in the Second World War many stores were bombed and one even had to open temporarily in a church hall.
Sainsbury’s has always played a role in communities and, to mark the birthday all staff are being given a day to help in their local areas.
