A Thanet man who is one of the driving forces behind the project responsible for The Kitchen CT9 cafe has been awarded up to £10,000 and a place on a learning programme to help improve the local community
Alexander Roarke, director of Thanet Iceberg Project, is one of 71 leaders across England selected for the Community Business Trade Up Programme which is run by the School for Social Entrepreneurs, in partnership with Power to Change. The programme supports people improving their local communities through trade.
The programme will help the Alexander – who is best known as simply Roarke – to grow the Thanet Iceberg Project, the charity behind The Kitchen CT9 community café.
The cafe works to help individuals and households across Thanet to combat the causes of poverty and uses charitable food “surplus” donations from organisations such as FareShare, as well as local food businesses.
The cafe pricing is a two tier system – “need it” and “want it”. Those who are willing and able to pay a fair price for their food and drink know that the profit from their orders goes back in to the business to enable those less able to pay, to get the same quality and quantity of food at a vastly reduced rate.
Roarke has now started the nine-month learning programme at the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), helps people develop the skills, strengths and networks they need to tackle society’s biggest problems.
Roarke said: “I am delighted to have been accepted onto the Community Business Trade Up Programme, run by the School for Social Entrepreneurs, in partnership with Power to Change. The programme and grant of up to £10,000 will help me grow Thanet Iceberg Project, so that we can support more people in Thanet.”
Amber Sorrell, programme manager at the School for Social Entrepreneurs, added: “We are thrilled to welcome Roarke onto the programme, where they’ll learn alongside other community leaders how to create lasting social impact for the region. We are confident Roarke has the entrepreneurial qualities and motivation to increase their impact on Thanet even further, which is why we have awarded him a highly-coveted place.”.
Find out more about the programme and register your interest for 2020/21 at https://www.the-sse.org/courses/community-business/
