The Biscuit Factory Foundation is a charity that aims to nurture and develop the artistic opportunity and appreciation of the arts.

They deliver a wide cultural programme that is accessible for all within local, regional and national communities.

The Biscuit Factory Foundation worked with us on our third cookbook, Secret Dishes From Around the World 3. They commissioned the fantastic artist Breezy Willows to create a digital painting for the project.

Gateshead Foodbank is an organisation seeded by the Trussell Trust that provides invaluable services to the local community. They help individuals and families in crisis, through the provision of emergency food supplies. 

We worked with Gateshead Foodbank during our 2021 Reverse Advent Calendar Campaign.  The project encouraged people to donate a specific item to their local food bank  every day leading up to Christmas. We created a resource hub on our website with information about food banks across the country and promoted our free donation tracker to help people support their local food bank.

The People’s Kitchen is a charity based in Newcastle confronting food poverty across the city by giving refuge for those struggling with poverty and sleeping rough. For over 30 years, the People’s Kitchen has offered hot meals to those in need, fulfilling their founding principle of ‘friendship and food’. The kitchen serves over 250 meals a day, and offers hot showers and toiletries to the homeless at the Alison Centre on Bath Lane. As a community organisation, The People’s Kitchen depends on a committed network of over 230 volunteers, and regularly partners with local charities, businesses and religious organisations to increase awareness of food insecurity in Newcastle and to reach out to as many people as possible. During the pandemic, The People’s Kitchen ran a takeaway meal service to prevent those struggling with poverty from going hungry during lockdown.

We would also like to celebrate the work of the Chronicle Sunshine Fund, which provides support and specialist equipment to children and young adults with disabilities across Newcastle and the North East. According to recent reports, there are upwards of 18,000 children registered as disabled throughout the North East, many of whom do not always have access to the specialised help and equipment they require. The Chronicle Sunshine Fund seeks to address this issue by covering the costs of wheelchairs, trikes, specialist beds and special sensory equipment that can be difficult to access through the NHS. As a community enterprise, the Sunshine Fund does much of its fundraising through community events, and has collaborated in the past with other charities such as Little Learners Northumberland.

Our Community Cookery School team visited Newcastle as part of the Secret Dishes From Around the World book tour in 2021. We spoke to artist Breezy Willows, who was commissioned by The Biscuit Factory, a North East based visual arts charity, to create an original design for the Indonesian section of the book. You can listen to the interview on our Share Your Secrets podcast, which is available for free via Spotify, Google and Apple!

Our Community Cookery School teams host a wide range of fundraising and community events throughout the year. These include our popular Secret Supper Clubs, Secret Dishes From Around the World cookery workshops and seasonal Community Kitchen get-togethers. There’s something for everyone! Find out more about all of our upcoming public events on our Eventbrite page…