Cook for Good was founded in 2019, by Robinne Collie and Karen Mattison. We shared a love of cooking, and a dream of building a community kitchen that would create meaningful links between local businesses and local people, through food-related experiences.
We began by running corporate teambuilding events in which colleagues came together to cook large-scale meals for homeless and vulnerable people. It was a new model which combined team development and corporate volunteering into one event.
We then began exploring ways to widen our impact and build cooking skills and connections within and across communities. We started talking to Peabody Housing about turning a disused cafe at the heart of their Kings Cross estate into a community kitchen and surplus food pantry.
As our plans started becoming more concrete, we asked the Kings Cross community what they would want from a new space. We explored a range of ideas with different groups which helped us make sure that what we were planning would match our residents’ needs.
As plans progressed with Peabody, we got in touch with businesses who were based nearby, or shared our values, and invited them to come on board. Facebook, Argent and Ninja all agreed to support the kitchen build and fit out, and we also received pro bono advice from Axis Engineering, TP Bennett, JLL and QA Design.
We also asked organisations in the food and community spaces for advice and support. As a result, we have developed partnerships with a number of groups including The Felix Project (who run FareShare in London), The Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, and Help on your Doorstep.
We first broke ground in the summer of 2021, and work is ongoing to build and fit out the space. In the meantime, we're continuing to run our corporate teambuilding events, both virtually and in person, which help fund everything else we do.
The Pantry opened in September 2021, and our community kitchen will be ready for action by the end of the year. We’ll be running a programme of cooking courses and community meals, as well as continuing to invite corporate groups to come in for purposeful teambuilding events.
We’d like to keep you up to date with our plans for new classes, meals, events and other Cook for Good news. We won’t bombard you with emails and you can opt out at any time.
