A grassroots organisation aiming to alleviate food poverty in Penzance and the surrounding area is welcoming some of the community’s most vulnerable people into its brand new premises.

Growing Links CIC runs Street Food Project, which provides hot meals every evening to individuals experiencing homelessness or living in food poverty. 

After years with no indoor space for their guests, Growing Links has recently relocated their successful project to the new Safe & Well Hub at the former John Daniel Centre in Heamoor, thanks to funding and public donations. Not only does the new location provide a warm and dry space to eat in, it also helps service users access other support services at the hub.

Earlier this year, Penzance Council awarded £24,789 in grant funding to five local community organisations for a range of ongoing projects and events which benefit residents in the parish. As part of this, Growing Links CIC was awarded £8,313 to buy and install a fully equipped commercial kitchen for Street Food Project at the new Safe & Well Hub. 

Wayne Sanders is handed a pasty from Street Food Project volunteer, Linda McKechnie. Run by Growing Links CIC, Street Food Project is welcoming some of the community’s most vulnerable people into its brand new premises at the Safe & Well Hub, the former John Daniel Centre in Heamoor. Growing Links CIC was awarded £8,313 of grant funding from Penzance Council to buy and install a commercial kitchen in the building. Photo by Penzance Council.
Wayne Sanders is handed a pasty from Street Food Project volunteer, Linda McKechnie. (Picture: Penzance Council)

Mayor of Penzance, Stephen Reynolds and ward councillor Bonnie Jackson recently visited the Safe & Well Hub to see Street Food Project in action.

Impressed with the new facilities, councillor Reynolds commented: “It’s great to see the amazing work that is being done by all the volunteers here, and the compassion they show for some of the most vulnerable people in our community. It’s a great space for these people. I like that they have so much space to be themselves – there’s a relaxed vibe, there’s no tension. 

“I take my hat off to everyone from Growing Links for the work that they do and have done over the years. Often a lot of these people get stigmatised and get disapproved of, but the attitude here is totally non-judgmental, and long may it continue. 

“I really appreciate the work that they are doing here and I’m really proud that Penzance Council has been able to support them with their new kitchen, which is fantastic.”

Street Food Project volunteer Linda McKechnie. Run by Growing Links CIC, Street Food Project is welcoming some of the community’s most vulnerable people into its brand new premises at the Safe & Well Hub, the former John Daniel Centre in Heamoor. Growing Links CIC was awarded £8,313 of grant funding from Penzance Council to buy and install a commercial kitchen in the building. Photo by Penzance Council.
Street Food Project volunteer Linda McKechnie. (Picture: Penzance Council)

Street Food Project manager Ally Katkowski is already seeing the benefits of moving to the former John Daniel Centre: “It’s been amazing. It’s that whole thing of being able to bring people indoors when it’s really wet outside and give them a cup of tea and some food in the warm. It’s been really overwhelming, actually, after months and months of planning, to see it all happening now. 

“Before, we were serving food out of a doorway, in cardboard boxes with wooden forks, and now people are coming in and sitting at a table with a knife and a fork and a plate. It’s a completely different service to what we were able to offer before.” 

Wayne Sanders knows first-hand the vital service that Street Food Project provides for the community: “My situation was quite dire, I was made homeless and with no deposit money, was living in a truck for a couple of years. Eventually I was offered a room in a council-owned property, which I am still in now, with another year left before I have to move out. I’m on the Homechoice Housing Register, bidding on different properties when I can, but there are obviously a lot of people looking for places, and not a lot of properties. So, it’s quite hard, but I’m much, much better than I was, and that’s the main thing. 

“As for this wonderful place, I’ve been involved with Street Food Project since the beginning of my homelessness. I didn’t know it existed, but a good friend put me onto it. I was absolutely petrified when I first turned up, with all the different personalities that were there, but everybody was wonderful and I started making friends. Truthfully, we’re all two pay cheques away from this. 

The team at Street Food Project are visited by mayor of Penzance, Stephen Reynolds and councillor Bonnie Jackson. Run by Growing Links CIC, Street Food Project is welcoming some of the community’s most vulnerable people into its brand new premises at the Safe & Well Hub, the former John Daniel Centre in Heamoor. Growing Links CIC was awarded £8,313 of grant funding from Penzance Council to buy and install a commercial kitchen in the building. Photo by Penzance Council.
The team at Street Food Project are visited by mayor of Penzance, Stephen Reynolds and councillor Bonnie Jackson (Picture: Penzance Council)

“This new place is lovely, especially if you’ve got wet in the day. Look around, it’s the most life there’s been in this place for years. At the old place, it was a windy corner, so it was literally ‘get your food and gone’, but now this place is really good. 

“I’ve thrived here not just as a service user, but as a service provider, in a sense, with my advice and shared experiences. It’s been really good for me, it really has. Having been there myself, I am very aware of the invisible people in this society that are not quite making it work. I empathise with them and I identify with them.”

Local residents will have the opportunity to see Street Food Project in action for themselves later this month when the Safe & Well Hub holds an open day at the end of November. 

Showing councillors Jackson and Reynolds around the new Street Food Project kitchen, director of Growing Links, Lynne Dyer said: “It’s really lovely to be in the John Daniel Centre, which is now the Safe & Well Hub in Penzance. It’s dry and it’s clean and it’s really spacious, and people get to sit down and eat their dinner like everybody else does. 

Wayne Sanders is served a hot meal by Street Food Project volunteers. Run by Growing Links CIC, Street Food Project is welcoming some of the community’s most vulnerable people into its brand new premises at the Safe & Well Hub, the former John Daniel Centre in Heamoor. Growing Links CIC was awarded £8,313 of grant funding from Penzance Council to buy and install a commercial kitchen in the building. Photo by Penzance Council.
Wayne Sanders is served a hot meal by Street Food Project volunteers (Picture: Penzance Council)

“The brilliant thing about it is working in a wider partnership – the fact that we have housing resettlement here, we have First Light here for domestic violence, we’ve got a mental health team onboard - we’ve got everything. And already we’re helping people to get their forms filled in and get housed and get into the whole system, whereas when people are just on the street, it’s really hard to engage with people. When people are coming here and having their dinner, everyone can engage with everybody else, so it’s just going to make the system a lot easier for people to progress.”

Penzance Council provide grants to local community groups and charities who are working to benefit our residents and our Parish environment – find out more about how to apply online: www.penzance-tc.gov.uk/grants/ or contact the council offices (Tel: 01736 363405 or Email: [email protected])