OUR COMMUNITY KITCHEN

Our Community Kitchen exists to reduce social isolation for people of all ages and abilities by bringing together the local community of Haddington and Lammermuir to enjoy good hearty fresh food and allowing friendships to form.  OCK runs from Haddington Bowling Club and has organically developed with attendees being elderly people, people living with Dementia, people with physical disabilities, people with life-long conditions/autism, wheelchair users, carers, people with a terminal diagnosis, and people who are visually impaired.  We also work with our local Area Partnership around holiday hunger for pupils whos families are in receipt of a low income. Sometimes people bring their grandchildren and during the holiday period, we see more young people and single parents. We also have other space set aside within the Bowling Club for people who wish to have some quiet time during the lunchtime. 

We normally bring up to 90 people together each week, however, we have stopped our usual way of working to respond to this horrendous coronavirus. We are still continuing to change people’s lives through food, but in a very different way. We desperately needed to respond to this crisis as each person who has previously come along and started forming friendships has now been forced to stay indoors, which can make them feel even more lonely than before.  People tell us about the power of our good home-cooked food and how they feel loved and cared for, so we have changed what we were doing to ensure that those most vulnerable in our community are now delivered a free hot meal twice at home by many local people who are currently volunteering. We are preparing, cooking and delivering up to 200 meals per week and we have trained our volunteers to do kindness calls for people at home, which is helping greatly in terms of people feeling less anxious, isolated, and lonely. We are planning to organise picnics in the local park or other areas we can sit outside during the next few months, weather permitting, and we are hoping to purchase camping stools for our participants and volunteers. We understand by speaking with some people we deliver food to that the extreme isolation and loneliness due to COVID-19 is impacting people’s mental health and we want to be there for people, helping when they most need it. We are commissioning someone to do some market research that will help us determine how people are feeling, what they need help with, and the challenges they are experiencing. We would like to know what it would take for some people to come back around the table in a safe way, eventually and their responses will determine what we do. 

HADDINGTON RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB

Haddington Rugby Football Club has a proud history.  We are delighted to have PureMalt as our primary sponsor, particularly with their strong industrial heritage within the town.

Building rugby teams is multi-faceted. The support that PureMalt provides to Haddington RFC enables us to ensure that our senior teams have strips to wear, that we can ensure adequate changing facilities to members of all ages and genders, as well as for community clubs and schools. PureMalt has enabled us to ensure that the next crop of players is developed by enabling coaches to be accredited, as well as providing funding for our Youth Development Officer.

The difference PureMalt has had on the club is not only based upon financial investment. PureMalt has become a part of the Haddington RFC family. Whether attending games, or by recognising success by selecting and presenting “Man of the Match” awards, PureMalt has always shown a keen interest in the success of the club. We look forward to this continuing long into the future, with Haddington RFC and PureMalt remaining at the heart of the community.

HADDINGTON ATHLETIC FOOTBALL CLUB

Haddington Athletic is the local Football Club in the town of Haddington. The Club currently has around 270 players, with around 70 volunteers, who are either Coaches or Committee members. The Club has a development pathway for players, from 5 year olds in our Soccer School, through to adults in the 1^st Team. We have boys’ and girls’ Youth teams, playing 7, 9 & 11-a- side football, in both the Edinburgh and East Lothian Leagues. The 1^st Team play in the East of Scotland League and have recently been accepted for a Full Licence, by the SFA, which will enable them to play in the Scottish Cup.

The Youth teams play out of the fantastic facility at Whittingehame Drive, which includes a Pavilion and floodlit 3G all weather pitch. The 1^st Team are based at Millfield, on the enclosed floodlit grass pitch.

Pure Malt have generously sponsored our 2009 Youth team since 2019, purchasing home and away kits for the team. This has been a huge help to the team financially and we fully appreciate the support that our neighbours at Pure Malt provide.