Discussions are taking place to try and stop the shutdown of the Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet scheme.
The project, which has been providing free food packages to charities, community organisations and individuals, issued a statement today (March 29) to say it would be closing after disagreement over operating procedures and a withdrawal of funding.
Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet had been picking up large amounts of supplies from organisations such as FareShare Kent to then be filtered out to local groups like Ramsgate Salvation Army, food banks and The Lifeboat Project in Westgate.
A proportion of funding has now been withdrawn – although the talks are thought to include reinstating this in some way – in the disagreement about safety measures.
In an online statement kitchen boss Sharon Goodyer said: “I am sorry for the following announcement from the bottom of my heart:
“Following the withdrawal of funding and extreme criticism of the ways I have worked recently I have to close Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet CIC immediately.
“I feel no need to defend myself or my team’s actions. I am extremely proud of the service we offered you. I have had to close because we cannot continue without the funding. We did everything for free and were always vulnerable to this action being taken against us.
“To all those families whom we were going to deliver to next week. I will post suggesting an alternative course of action for you as soon as I can.”
However, a bid is being made to resolve the issues which may mean the scheme carries on with a delivery service.
Co-ordination is also taking place for deliveries to be made via a depot at Ramsgate Town Council’s Radford House.
Several offers of fundraising have also been made by the community to ensure the food scheme can carry on.
The Isle of Thanet News will update when those discussions are complete
