{"id":10775,"date":"2020-04-25T15:15:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T15:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=10775"},"modified":"2020-12-22T12:03:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T12:03:07","slug":"rapid-response-social-enterprise-shows-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2020\/04\/rapid-response-social-enterprise-shows-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapid response: social enterprise shows the way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Nurses and doctors working flat out in intensive care units do not have time to plan or cook healthy meals.  They barely have time to eat. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s one of the startling facts galvanising an extraordinary social enterprise. National governments could learn from grassroots innovation which is impressive not least for its efficiency. At local community levels there is a rapid response to meet the urgent needs created and exposed by Covid19. Access to food is a defining issue of this pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a community kitchen in Leith, hundreds of meals are\ndelivered every day across Edinburgh.  To\nthe homeless who now have beds in hotels where kitchens are closed. To the\nelderly and vulnerable in need of support, to people without food or cash in the\nwealthy capital city\u2019s pockets of destitution.  \nTo care homes and sheltered housing. To health workers on the front lines\nat Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Western General hospital.   \u2018We didn\u2019t anticipate that but if anyone\nneeds to eat properly it\u2019s our nurses and doctors,\u2019 says Sue O\u2019Neill-Berest. She\u2019s\nthe food education manager at the Cyrenians Good Food Programme<\/a>\nwho finds herself in the heat of what was a smallish teaching kitchen now\ntransformed into a highly disciplined production line.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Last Thursday we produced 1,000 meals in one day\u2019, she says\nwhen we speak on the phone this week.\u2019  Last\nweek they reached a total of 10,000 meals many of them prepared from food that\nwould otherwise go to waste, turned into healthy curries and casseroles cooked\nand distributed by teams of volunteers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The daily death toll is a tragic reminder of this pandemic crisis. But food insecurity is not new.  Daily hunger defines the inequality and poverty that divides communities.  Life in lockdown has revealed great cracks in the structure of our fragile society. Yet there is another story. In every city, town and village, across Scotland (as in the rest of the UK) communities are responding with astonishing speed and enterprise to get help and food where it is needed most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From cook school to production kitchen<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a virtual trip to the low building in Jane Street, a small industrial complex near the bottom of Leith Walk. In the parking area we might spot the cables connecting a massive walk-in fridge and freezer trailer to the kitchen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Biggar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018With 40 tons of food to store you need a pretty big fridge,\u2019\nsays Sue. Biggar Chill<\/a>, a freezer hire company, responded quickly to the\nappeal for help.  \u2018Delighted\u2019 the company\nposted on their Facebook page, \u2018These people are doing a fantastic job\u2019.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a sign of how swiftly and efficiently this 50-year-old charity has adapted to dramatic changes. Until 27 March, the Cyrenians kitchen was the centre of the Cook School programme<\/a>, teaching basic skills and encouraging healthy eating.  At the same time their city-wide network of Community Cook Clubs<\/a> offered a chance for local people to cook and eat together. It\u2019s more fun, and it brings different groups of people together. Or, as Cyrenians CEO Ewan Aitken underlines in a recent blog: \u2018Our maxim \u201csomething to eat, someone to eat with\u201d was borne from listening to those who experience food insecurity on a daily basis.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With lockdown threatening increased insecurity, the kitchen\ncontinued to provide meals for some community cook club members. Then more\nrequests began to arrive. From 26 meals to 48, then (when NHS needs emerged) 96\nmore and now the average turnover is 600-700 meals a day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready steady cook<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Inside the kitchen (the virtual tour is illustrated by social media pictures<\/a>) we are likely to find four to five volunteers. In gloves and masks they are hard at work to a rhythm of chopping, mashing, portioning. One of them is Meena Bhana, an IT specialist who is also a member of local voluntary group World Kitchen in Leith.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s great to be able to help,\u2019 she tells me later by email,\u00a0 \u2018Guys at Cyrenians are doing a great job. Working in the kitchen with other volunteers, knowing we doing something that is going to be appreciated. It\u2019s more like a Ready Steady Cook kind of planning. Depending on what ingredients come in, we plan what needs to be made\u2026batch cooking curries, tagines with rice or pasta bolognese, sausage casserole and mash, haggis with neeps and tatties of course!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-stop production. With around 20 volunteers, a rota of two shifts a day, five days a week is co-ordinated by Scott Kirkham. Daily deliveries arrive from FareShare<\/a> (the national network redistributing food saved from waste) bringing palettes of \u2018wonky veg\u2019 \u2013 piles of carrots, turnips, cabbages, potatoes \u2013 and there are mounds of other food stuffs from supermarkets, hotels and corporate kitchens with full freezers and no staff to feed.  \u2018We\u2019ve got mountains of mince,\u2019 says Sue who speaks highly of the generosity across a wide range of public, private and third sector organisations.  \u2018The media often concentrates on what\u2019s bad. But there are a lot of good people out there.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtual kitchen prepares for tomorrow  <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The far from exhaustive list of contributors includes Aberdeen\nAsset Management, RBS at Gogarburn, George Hotel (Intercontinental Edinburgh), Tesco,\nCo-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury\u2019s. And there\u2019s a bewildering line up of charities\nand social enterprises, food banks and community kitchens, providing an\ninter-connected service supporting urgent social needs as well as daily\nmeals.  The aim is to avoid duplication,\nreducing wasted effort and unnecessary costs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no command and control centre, no centralised\nco-ordination. \u2018It\u2019s been an organic process and that might be uncomfortable\nfor people who prefer more control. But, you know, it is working well.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about tomorrow? \nEvolution continues with plans for a virtual kitchen. Trial runs of Cook\nAlong events promise an enterprising development of the community cook clubs.\nUnder Donnie\nMacLean<\/a> of Scotland Food and Drink there are plans to launch regular\ncommunity master classes \u2013 demonstrating simple \u2018low risk\u2019 meals (\u2018no fish, no\nmeat\u2019) to cook, eat and perhaps share an extra helping with a neighbour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The live-streamed cookery class will invite donations of \u00a35\nfrom those who can afford to pay, bridging the gap of inequality, bringing\ndivided communities together in a social setting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The idea is to create a legacy,\u2019 says Sue, \u2018When this is over we still need to be a sustainable charity.\u2019  And with that our mobile conversation ends as she heads back towards the heat of real life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about Cyrenians visit their website: cyrenians.scot<\/a> To support their work, donate through JustGiving\/Crisis Appeal <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow Cyrenians on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured image and Biggar Chill photograph is from the Cyrenians Facebook Page <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was first published on Leith Open Space <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Government could learn from local community enterprises responding with astonishing speed and efficiency to get help and food where it is needed most \u2013 including NHS staff on the frontline <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[706],"tags":[464,209,177,94],"class_list":["post-10775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-community-empowerment","tag-food-security","tag-inequality","tag-poverty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}