Let’s turn the spotlight on an amazing local not-for-profit organisation – Cherwell Collective – based near CRM’s office in Kidlington.
This service was set up during the pandemic to help people and families facing hardship. Cherwell Collective supports not-for-profit community groups across Oxfordshire and won a prestigious EESC Civil Solidarity Award for ‘food supply and assistance to vulnerable groups’ in 2020.
We asked Emily Lea Connally, the passionate founder of Cherwell Collective to explain more about the charity. She said: “Our collective is run 80% by volunteers who all share our common goals: to empower our community, increase wellbeing, support the vulnerable and reduce waste and the environmental impact in our daily lives. We do this by supporting five community groups: Cherwell Larder, Climatarian Kitchen, Harvest@Home, Oxford Party Library and Waste Innovation Station.
Cherwell Larder
The motto of Cherwell Larder is ‘Friends Feeding Friends’. The non means-tested service has over 2000 registered users seeking food support and the Larder provides them with food and other essentials. Volunteers and delivery drivers are also users of the service, building long-term solidarity and sustainability.
Climatarian Kitchen
This is a surplus and seasonal café serving Kidlington from Exeter Hall on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The Kitchen also provides cooking courses, meal kits and ready meals made from surplus food. All the food is donated surplus from local businesses or from Oxford Food Hub or grown locally in our Harvest@Home GreenSpace Gardens. The café runs on a ‘give what you can’ basis, with a carbon costing system on the menu so that diners can see a £ per car-mile carbon footprint equivalent cost of their food.
Harvest@Home
This group supports community gardens across Oxfordshire and has helped over 900 people learn to grow food. The group provides equipment and know-how through an online support community of home gardening experts.
Oxford Party Library
This group supports households across Oxfordshire and has over 1000 facebook members. The group provides party supplies, shared crockery, props, decorations, games, marquees, cooking equipment and other party items to reduce waste around parties and help people save money through sharing resources.
Waste Innovation Station
Cherwell Collective’s newest project Waste Innovation Station’s Headquarters (WISH) are in Kidlington and launching in June at the Queen’s Jubilee. This group provides kits and guidance as well as education and outreach around how to reduce waste in our homes through repurposing and reusing. The goal is to support a circular economy: where anything that can be reused is kept in circulation rather than sent to landfill.
Throughout May WISH volunteers encourage the public to join us in making bunting out of repurposed materials to be used at Cherwell Collective’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations taking place at Exeter Hall, Kidlington. On Thursday 2nd June WISH will light a beacon made of repurposed materials in honour of the Queen and on Saturday 4 June, Cherwell Collective will host a “Big Picnic” community lunch with foods from all over the world to celebrate the international influence and success of this historical reign.
Emily continued: “The Cherwell Collective volunteers all love what we do. We know it makes a difference and it’s fun! We think it’s so important to help people understand the carbon footprint of food, so we encourage ‘less but better’ meat in our recipes where you swap out 50% for fresh produce. In 2020, we saved the carbon equivalent of 1500 trees’ lifetimes by saving food waste.
“At the Kitchen we also cater for large events, like the Rotary Club recently. All the funds from Climatarian Kitchen are used to support Cherwell Collective services for vulnerable people and it inspires us to see the amazing food we can produce using only food that was destined for waste.
Cherwell Collective is supported by Cherwell District Council, The National Lottery and Oxfordshire County Council. The charity relies on the generosity of volunteers who share their time, skills and expertise to empower our community. If you’d like to find out more about Cherwell Collective or get involved, have a look at the website https://www.cherwellcollective.com/
