Hello and Welcome
Hello readers!
Thank you for stopping by and reading my posts. I appreciate it.
I came across this platform by accident and was immediately intrigued. It was like finally arriving at my writer’s destination. It feels good to be in a place where other writers write and respect their fellow writers’ work by offering them a helping hand to get their written work out there.
My name is Kate. Welcome to my profile. I love writing. Writing is my therapy; it keeps me sane and calm. Whenever I write, I feel so much lighter afterwards; it is good for the soul to mind dump words onto electronic paper. There was a time when writing and teaching people to become published authors was my day job. However, writing is now my hobby and fighting food poverty is now my daily work.
Let me rewind a few years and explain. I had the opportunity to take over a registered charity 3 years ago, which I grabbed with both hands. This charity is a community centre, which was basically dead. There was no community environment, no community events, nothing. The place had been used as a preschool for 28 years and was only really rented out as a polling station or for kids’ birthday parties. The place lacked the one thing in the title: community.
COVID-19 had killed off children’s parties completely, and the preschool manager was nearing retirement.
So, unless somebody took over and breathed life into it again, the charity was going to be closed. It would be a shame, since the place opened in 1988 and the opportunity of its position on a housing estate with over six hundred homes was too much to just close. People needed their community centres more than ever; they needed connection again to repair what Covid had destroyed.
I had never run a charity before, just businesses and consulted business owners on how to make their business a success, never a charity! Like, where do you even start?!
Any-Hoo! I took on the challenge, and I’m so glad I did! Three years later, we have a buzzing, lively community centre that supports the community through a wide range of projects. We feed 1900 people a month through our food bank, and we cook over 400 hot meals each month to help feed the community. We host Bingo nights, Forest School, and lunch clubs that focus on positive mental health and on supporting people living in poverty. Not only that, but we have a fantastic team of volunteers and a handful of paid staff. What we have created is a beautiful environment where people look forward to waking up in the morning and attending. I am so proud of us all for making it happen!
Yet, there is one aspect of the journey that I do not get to talk about with my community: how we started, the challenges, and how I feel daily as a human being running this charity. I do not get to share with them all the good, the bad and the ugly experiences that brought me here.
Sometimes, all they see is my face, my smile, and me working. I wanted to provide my community with insight into how it all began, where it is going, and the opportunity to see and read the woman behind it all. Finding this platform will allow me to do that, with the bonus of raising funds to feed more people. I have a goal to feed 5,000 people a month, and if my love of writing can make that happen. Then that would be truly A-MA-ZING!
My paid job is a privilege and a sacrifice. A privilege to have and to help so many people, but it is a sacrifice because humanity should not be placed in a position where they cannot afford to eat. Once upon a time, not being able to afford luxuries was usually a benefit-related issue. Now, poverty has hit every age, stage, and community. It does not matter if you are working 40 hours a week and taking on overtime; people are struggling. Even pensioners who have worked all their lives and saved for retirement have seen their savings deplete due to rising energy bills and food costs. Which leaves them with a winter dilemma: do they heat their homes or buy food?
We have reached a crisis: Eat or Heat!
Having this platform to write is a privilege, and I hope that by feeding this privilege, it helps feed my soul as I fight food poverty daily.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my post.
I look forward to sharing this journey with you!
Have a great week.
Kind Regards
Your friend for the journey,
( Pronouns: She/Her)
International Best Selling Author and Senior Admin Management of New Pasture Lane Community Centre
Registered Charity No 700422
DISCLAIMER: These blog posts are in no way, shape, or form to provide any professional advice and are for entertainment purposes only. The author/s take no personal responsibility or liability for any person/s who chooses to use the methods in their own lives.
