The idea
Come Dine With Me is our Community feeding programme working at a grassroots level to provide free home cooked meals once a week predominately for families with primary aged children, who may be facing challenges due to the cost of living crisis. As well as giving parents a free day from cooking, Come Dine With Me also gives families valuable time to relax and enjoy valuable quality time together, and provides an inclusive environment time together where they can make new friends with other parents who they wouldn't normally get a chance to meet so tackling issues of isolation and loneliness.
What we'll deliver
- We can increase the number of families that we can support through this programme
- Build a thriving community hub where families will build friendship and get to know their community
- We will recruit volunteers who would like to learn new skills to build confidence and/or gain employment
Why it's a great idea
This project will benefit the families who access by building a greater community cohesion, and providing a safe place for families to come together have a healthy meal and establish sound friendships which is especially valuable for single parent families, families who do not know anyone in the area, and those social isolation for various for various reasons.
This will also have the benefit of creating opportunities for volunteering from our beneficiaries which will give access to training and the building up of skills and talents which can create and/or build upon transferable skills which can be used in workplaces or when applying for jobs so creating a more sustainable, engaged and stronger community.
Steps to get it done
- Increasing the number of families who we can support via our feeding programme
- Encouraging those who are interested in volunteering to start where they are
- Working together with organisations that will coach those volunteers who want to get employment
- Working with other health professionals to bring knowledge of the services available that our beneficiaries may access
We have already seen how this project has impacted our local community where families have come together, are engaged and the children have a safe platform to play together after school with children they would not have ordinarily mix with.
Our current volunteers have developed skills and developed confidence in communicating with people they do not know or would not ordinarily converse with which can now be used in their everyday lives.
