Dear Well Kneaded supporter,
Firstly I'd like to take the opportunity to personally thank each one of you for being a part of the wider family of Well Kneaded. You have shared words of encouragement, a wealth of experience, listening ears, hard earned pounds, sacrificial time, gentle challenge and heartfelt prayers, all which have strengthened us as we have journeyed through the twisting and turning terrain of the past ten years. You have been part of our team, served on our board, eaten with us, filled in events gaps for us, grown veg for us, foraged with us, invested in us, partnered with us and donated to us. Whether you have walked alongside us for a decade or a month, you are a part of the Well Kneaded trellis and in so being, have enabled the vision to grow.
Cycles of poverty are perpetuated by a growing disconnection between inner city urban communities and sustainable food systems. Our vision is to see these cycles broken by providing a pathway for young adults facing disadvantage to grow in confidence as they re-establish a 'nature connection' within local sustainable food systems and become independent as they learn practical hospitality skills and professional development skills enabling them to gain and sustain employment.
For over 6 years Well Kneaded has offered a comprehensive training & paid work placement programme for young adults who are not in work, employment or training and who are facing significant disadvantages. Two past graduates still work with us now and others have gone on to work in hospitality with one going on to start his own successful catering company. In June 2023, we received charity status and so the work of training and supporting young adults will be overseen by WK Foundation. Well Kneaded will continue to oversee the commercial aspects of the business as well as providing a significant element of the technical training to the youth trainees.
Over the past 9 months the WK Foundation has focussed on three main areas:
Programme evaluation and re-development
After evaluating data from past internships together with our training methods, assumptions and materials, we are aiming to launch our new programme ‘Nourish’ in October 2024. Nourish (Nurturing Opportunity by Unlocking Remarkable potential in young adults, through Innovative Sustainable Hospitality training) is planned to be a three phase training programme run over the course of 12 months which includes a 6-12 week training element (combining farm & supplier visits, practical kitchen training, hospitality & customer service training and personal development), work experience placements and onwards employment matching and progression.
Partnership building
Our partners are a key part of the work we do. We will talk more about partnerships in the coming months but for now we are building connections with referring organisations (council, youth charities, local community organisations), those who will support the training (growers, farms, producers, specialists) and employers who will take on graduates at the end of their training with us.
Fundraising
Fundraising enables the cogs to keep turning and is no small part of what we have been working on. Fundraising not only creates the income which enables everything to run, it also establishes important connections with the organisations and individuals that choose to fund us. These connections will all form part of the soil, as it were, of the Foundation. We have so far received a few very generous individual donations (thank you), a few of you have set up regular monthly giving commitments (thank you) and additionally we have received grants from Wandsworth Grant Fund, The Jerusalem Trust and the Woodward Trust and are waiting to hear back from further trusts. In addition to all of this generosity, Well Kneaded will support the work of the Foundation by donating funds from annual profits, as well as encouraging our corporate event clients to donate when they book an event with us.
There is much that is still in evolution, but I hope that this gives you a taste of where we are at as we approach this Easter weekend. It is pertinent to say that although not always evident, Well Kneaded has its roots firmly planted in the hope of the Christian story, centred on Jesus, who out of his great love gave all that he had for the sake of us. It is in (feebly) following this radical example of love, that we find our ‘why’, our reason, our motivation and our model. Some of you will share in this rather unconventional Way of life and some of you will not. My hope is that wherever you currently find yourself in relation to this extraordinary Easter Story, you find just a taste more of the ‘fullness of life’ that it promises. Something else you will get used to is the growing, soil, garden analogies…. It is impossible now to unsee this way of understanding in relation to the Well Kneaded ecosystem. Laurence really is to thank for that and can tell you much more reliably about it all.
With love,
Bridget
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