OUR COMMUNITY KITCHEN
- For the duration of November, the charity has been able to provide over 100 meals per week to it's participants on a Tuesday and Thursday each week. The charity continues their kindness calls for their isolated members to ease the effects of isolation with conversation and companionship.
- 'Our Community Kitchen' eagerly await news of funding to begin work on their community garden. It is planned that stage 1 of the garden project will commence before Christmas, stage 1 will involve the setup of the groundwork and construction for the garden. OCK is encouraging people to volunteer to get involved in their garden project by volunteering their time in support of the setup of the garden.
- Whilst East Lothian moves into tier 2 'Our Community Kitchen' remain unable to operate at the capacity they did pre-Covid-19. 'OCK' can set up 5 socially distanced tables 1 day a week. This reduced service is expected to continue whilst the risk of covid-19 is still strong. It is expected to take at least until summer 2021 for 'OCK' to be able to return to normality. The return to meeting in the local bowling club for a warm meal and company is fundamentally important to the lives of the many members of the community that 'OCK' serve. During the spring months of 2021, OCK will open two days per week to provide a socially distanced space for people to reconnect and to establish friendships over food. This will be a leade into coming around the table once again.
- 'Our Community Kitchen' launched its reverse advent calendar initiative. The reverse advent calendar requests the generosity of the public to donate a single food item on each day of advent. These items will then be sent to Knox Academy School, who add to the donation and will then be sent to the food bank with some of the food being sent to OCK participants at Christmas time.
- During the festive period, OCK will open on Christmas day to provide hot Christmas meals delivered to their participants at home. People will be able to enjoy a hot meal, a small bottle of wine (generously donated by Shiva and Shanthi Kumar at Haddington Wines and Whiskies), a gift bag containing small Christmas gifts of; chocolate truffles, apple chutney, Christmas pudding, friendship bracelets made by local brownies and homemade Christmas cards (made by the local primary school children). Over the course of the 7th and 9th of December, the OCK volunteers will dedicate time to decorating the gift bags that their members will receive and to make baubles. Participants of OCK will receive all the afore mentioned Christmas goodies delivered by Santa Claus.
- Participants of OCK who already face the issue of isolation continue to face extreme circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This increased difficulty makes isolation an important issue to tackle and the value of the work carried out by OCK can truly be seen.