Volunteers provide good karma for those in need at Karmabank Kitchen, Hastings

Saving surplus high-quality fresh food from ending up in landfill- Karmabank Kitchen supplies hot meals and groceries to those in need in Hastings every week, and creates a welcoming social space to deliver them.

Since launching last May, the project – run entirely by volunteers - has served 2,437 three-course lunches and handed out 2,900 bags of shopping, saving nearly 56 tonnes of perfectly good food from going to waste.

The fresh produce and groceries are supplied by a food re-distribution organisation called Fareshare as well as items donated by local retailers, restaurants and farms.

The project’s founder, Rima Sams, who ran a similar operation in London before moving back to Hastings to look after her mother, explains.

“Using that food to provide hot, nourishing meals and bags of shopping to people who need them, is great in itself – but it has also saved 3,640 tonnes of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, from going into the atmosphere. Decaying waste food is a big source of emissions that cause global warming.”

Now the Karmabank Kitchen team are keen to extend the service, providing more meals and groceries - and saving more damaging emissions – but to do it, they need to upgrade the cooking facilities at the hall where they operate.

“The space is great,” says Rima, “but the kitchen just isn’t adequate for the 70 lunches we are already supplying each week. So, we have started a Crowdfunder campaign to raise £2,500 to buy a commercial dishwasher, a new oven and a food processor.”

Volunteer James Bennett, is one of the people preparing that food – in a kind of large-scale Ready Steady Cook.

“We don’t know what food we are going to get until the afternoon before,’ says James, ‘and then more arrives on the morning of the lunch. So we put together a menu from what we have on the day. I love the challenge and it’s a huge buzz, with a lovely group of people and it’s great when we get positive feedback from our clients, but the kitchen really isn’t up to it.

“Last Christmas we had three turkeys donated and we managed to cook 70 Christmas dinners with one oven, but it was a stretch. Then we had a whole month without an oven at all. We have to make soup using a domestic juicer, three ladles at a time, with all the washing up down by hand… so it would make a huge difference to have better kitchen equipment.”

Along with the practical food assistance, Karmabank Kitchen also provides an important social function for the people who are referred to it by local support groups.

Volunteer Madeleine Mason has been involved from the start.

“As the project has bedded down, we have created a very welcoming and informal hub for people from many different backgrounds,’ says Madeleine. ‘It’s a warm and inclusive social space to share food that has been prepared with care and I believe it has enhanced the lives of many people.”

A grass-roots St Leonards project, responding to specific needs in our town, Karmabank Kitchen is not aligned to any other group and relies entirely on volunteers and donations.

If you would like to support this great local initiative, please make a donation to help them raise funds to buy better kitchen equipment. Visit crowdfunder.co.uk/p/karmabankhastings