Re-using kitchen items destined for landfill
Supporting people in hardship and crisis
Empowering cooking in all communities
We weigh all of our Kitchen Kit donations as they are redistributed. Here’s what we’ve achieved so far:
Kitchen Kit Redistribution is a community-led event based on giving and receiving. Many people, especially those starting out in a new home following a period of crisis, struggle to cook-from-scratch as they simply don’t have the kitchen items they need. At the same time, many of us have perfectly good but unused kitchen items sat in our cupboards taking up space. It is through this deficit, excess and desire for a circular economy, that Kitchen Kit Callout was born.
Partnering with organisations across Greater Manchester to host our bright orange donation bins. Once delivered, these bins are then kept in offices, buildings and lobbies where staff and residents can then donate their unwanted, preloved kitchen kit. When the bins are full, we collect the items, PAT test electrical goods and sort into our stockroom all ready to be transported to our next KKC event, wherever it may be.
Our latest Kitchen Kit Callout and Redistribution was in Bolton, new territory for us as we partnered with Bolton Arena as they very kindly offered to host our event. Bolton Wanderers in the Community also were one of the partnered bin hosts and we were very grateful for the collaboration. So many other local communities came together to support our event, such as Greater Manchester Fire Service but so many other Greater Manchester organisations were instrumental in the management of this project.
Cracking Good Food’s Project Manager, Ellie Rowland did a fabulous job in managing the entire event as her first Kitchen Kit Redistribution and we are delighted to see her only go from strength to strength in her role.
The need for Kitchen Kit Redistribution is great, we meet throughout our work in many of Greater Manchester’s most financially deprived and side-lined communities and so see firsthand the need for such events. Not only does this kit help to break down the barriers people face when accessing and cooking food, it also saves perfectly good equipment which would otherwise have gone to waste.
Many of the redistributed items will support people living in temporary accommodation to settle into their new homes when they move on to new tenancies, thereby helping to alleviate the financial and practical pressures of ‘setting up home’ and increasing their chances of a successful, long-term tenancy.
Huge thanks to the Recycle for Greater Manchester Community Fund for enabling us to continue with the campaign. The fund is a partnership between Recycle for Greater Manchester, which takes the money raised in the Renew shops and online and puts it back into local projects that support recycling, reuse and waste reduction.
Kitchen Kit Call Out is only possible with a huge amount of community support – from our fantastic bin hosts, donations and amazing volunteers. Find out more about how you can get involved below.
If you are a community organisation that would like to attend a future KKCO event please email kitchenkit@crackinggoodfood.org to be added to the mailing list.
