STORY: Lovingly Artisan - Giving back

The team at Lovingly Artisan Bakery, Plumgarth’s, Kendal is pleased to be supporting Waste Into Wellbeing and Kendal People’s Cafe, two volunteer led projects delivered by South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC).

Following the temporary suspension of the Café in March 2020, Waste into Wellbeing developed the food shares project, which they delivered throughout 2020 in response to the pandemic.

Now running two weekly community food shares at Stricklandgate House and the Hallgarth Community Centre, Kendal, Waste Into Wellbeing is providing vital support to struggling households, enabling  all families to be able to eat a healthy, balanced, and nutritious diet, regardless of their income.

In 2020 Waste Into Wellbeing redistributed a phenomenal 5041kg of food that would have otherwise gone into landfill, delivered 733 Lunch Bunch meals to elderly members of the community and shared an incredible 2,995 bags of groceries helping some 8,500 people in the process and that was all delivered by a group of dedicated volunteers and an amazing 2268 hours of their time to help improve people’s lives.

Some of the food provided has been kindly donated by local food retailers including the likes of Lovingly Artisan Bakery, whilst the majority is donated by environmentally conscious businesses who want to see their surplus food support the community rather than resulting in landfill. Alongside that Waste into Wellbeing also collaborates with the nurses and carers of the local NHS Integrated Care in the Community team to support Lunch Bunch.

Catherine Connor co-owner of Lovingly Artisan Bakery commented: ‘’We’ve always had our community at the heart of what we do, and as many will no doubt know we are all about health and wellbeing. Which is why when we asked if we could help out by the team we said yes without hesitation. Each month we bake a special batch of bread for around sixty local families who need support and provide bread for the forty or so regular Lunch Bunch diners, it’s not much to ask but it really makes a difference. We’re happy that we can support Waste Into Wellbeing in our own way, and we’d encourage as many local food businesses as possible to get involved. Especially as more people will need its support in the coming weeks and months.’’

Duncan Pollard, one of SLACC’s lead volunteers said: "The fresh bread provided by Lovingly Artisan is a fantastic contribution to our food share. It is highly appreciated and always generates excitement and a great talking point for everyone involved. We are delighted to partner with passionate local businesses like Lovingly Artisan.”

You may also be interested in…