Delivered 19 April 2018
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
A Community Kitchen at the Museum of Futures, to harness and celebrate the culinary creativity in the community, enabling emerging local businesses that want to make, bake and cater in the area.
A significant acquisition for the new GLA supported Museum at the heart of the community, the Community Kitchen will enable local start-up or home-based food businesses with the opportunity many have been seeking to explore the potential for a sustainable business future in cooking and catering .
Small business who may currently lack resources, if not the imagination and commitment to succeed, will be able to utilise a kitchen providing rare access to industry standard equipment & professional support. Local kitchen supply specialists & other advisers are available - a former manager of Fish, and chefs from award-winning local restaurant The French Table - & will enable them to safely learn about cooking, kit and business practice, & help them research, test & launch their own culinary products and services.
Our recent community survey revealed locally produced food, independent business & nurturing talent are key drivers of people's sense of community.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
Food, hospitality &communal eating play a significant part in the character of the Surbiton community, much of which has resulted from the busy calendar of events our network of partners and volunteers have delivered over the past 6 years. Our programme of participatory engagement & merry-making has inspired numerous homeworkers and small businesses to launch, collaborate & grow. Our 3 year old Surbiton Food Festival alone has seen 11 new companies start trading all-year round.
Made in Surbiton, a collective of local makers & producers includes food producers keen to explore potential growth & the Freshwater Sardine Festival & King’s Soup events both feature communal cooking, as the local people gather, cook & feast in celebration of community foundations. The Community Kitchen would add considerably to the capacity and capability of the community to continue supporting such small business development & to cater for itself at communal gatherings celebrating local business.
Steps to get it done:
Our recent local survey aimed to find out what local people felt about community, and make sure what we did had genuine benefit.
What mattered to people was a sense of shared goals. People wanted to connect, feel like and be recognised as part of something bigger and to make a difference by doing new things that broke ground and broke down barriers, inspired and supported local independent businesses to flourish and grow.
The Community Kitchen will provide such independent businesses and the wider community with new opportunities to learn and develop. Through workshops, skills exchanges, demonstrations, research, food industry advisory surgeries. Combined with the community's already established engagement with food and festivities, the Community Kitchen has a key role in building a strong, engaged, creative and sustainable community for the future.
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." J.R.R. Tolkien
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Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Whoop, 60 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Whoop, 50 people have pledged since fundraising began!
How will the money be spent?Target (inc. fees) £23,142
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Target (inc. fees) £23,142
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VolunteerThe Community Brain is a community interest company that works with communities to develop their cohesion using the widest range of the arts, education and local history.
We aim to create more engaged, inclusive, resilient communities that enjoy stronger social networks and more fruitful commercial relationships. It is all about giving place and people renewed importance and pride.
Our established and growing network of on-the-ground and online communities, partners and volunteers have already devised and delivered many one-off projects and a busy calendar of now annual events, raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity and inspired and encouraged numerous homeworkers and small businesses to launch and grow. The Surbiton Food Festival alone, currently planning its third annual celebration, has already yielded nine new startups.
However, although our work has already helped to build a locally shared sense of place that is now regularly celebrated with great pride, metropolitan suburbs like Surbiton are facing distinctive challenges to ongoing growth and development as there is a high density of commuting residents. Unlike those who work or spend day time locally, the commuter population customarily spends limited time shopping or socialising in the high streets near home.
We now want to overcome these obstacles by harnessing, adjusting and expanding engagement to develop and deliver a new vision that shapes a more positive, inclusive future for Surbiton’s communities and local businesses.
“At one of our recent events we discovered eleven people who had made the decision to move to Surbiton because they wanted to be actively engaged in our community” - Robin Hutchinson, The Community Brain.
Project Owner: The Community Brain The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
Contractor: The Community Brain The team responsible for building or installing the project.
