Supporting The Sharing Kitchen in Newent

We’ve donated £1,000 to The Sharing Kitchen in Newent through our partnership with the Travis Perkins Social Value Legacy Fund. This local service is bringing people together to share food and tackle social isolation in Gloucestershire.

The Sharing Kitchen team set up for lunch in Newent Memorial Hall every Thursday from 12:30 to 1:30pm. They provide free meals for people to sit and enjoy with others in the community. This donation will help cover the cost of the room rental and food so that the service can run for another year.

Local organisations are invited to attend The Sharing Kitchen each week and let people know about the free support services available in the area. Our team go along regularly to answer any questions people have about housing and the services we can support them with.  Our community engagement team are also joining two of The Sharing Kitchen lunches during August to provide free crafts and snacks for children and their parents.

Recently our Executive Director of People & Neighbourhoods, Liz Evans visited to present our donation to organiser Krissie Carter and the team of volunteers. Liz said: “We are thrilled to support this amazing community project.  It’s so important in bringing people together and helping people by providing meals at time when many are struggling with rising food prices. Our local partners are so important to the work that we do and it’s great to work with The Sharing Kitchen to provide further support for the people of Newent.”

Krissie started the project in November 2024 and there is now a group of local volunteers who help set up tables, serve food and drinks, greet visitors and clean up each week. As more people have started to join the lunches, the team have expanded from the back room to the main hall to cater to everyone.

The weekly event attracts people from all parts of the community with many going along for an opportunity to socialise and make new friends, as well as to enjoy the food. The team try to provide good meals that people enjoy. Each week there is a different menu cooked by chef Jeff Steers including ratatouille, pie, salad and quiche. They’ve also started putting a fun general knowledge quiz on all the tables for people to fill in while they eat. Answers are read out at the end of the session. Social isolation is a huge problem across the UK and free-to-attend community projects like this can make a huge difference to prevent loneliness.

Working with partner organisations to support the wider needs of its communities is an important part of our corporate strategy – ‘Delivering #Twogether 2024-2027’.

Our community engagement team have a busy schedule of community events over the summer holidays. You can see what’s on here: Summer events 2025 – Two Rivers Housing