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Supporting Salford: cooking up skills and community

At the heart of every community, food plays a powerful role. It brings people together, teaches valuable life skills and helps build confidence. That is why we are proud to support Salford Loaves & Fishes and their important community initiative.

Why we got involved

Salford Loaves & Fishes identifies a strong and growing need in Salford: supporting the homeless, isolated and vulnerable, including rough sleepers, sofa-surfers, families affected by housing insecurity, immigrants and asylum seekers. Alongside this, they address increasing food poverty, where even working families may be forced to choose between heating and eating.

Although their kitchen facilities serve an important purpose, the space was too small to host the cooking classes they wanted to run, classes designed to build practical skills, healthy-eating know-how and community connection.

Opening our kitchen

To support their mission, we partnered to open our kitchen space once a month for a small group from the Elevate Salford programme. Participants join a hands-on cooking session where they can experiment, learn new recipes, improve confidence in the kitchen and share a meal together in a welcoming environment.

Great progress so far

We are delighted to say that six cooking classes have already taken place.

Gained new cooking skills and recipe ideas
Learned about budget-friendly, healthy meals
Built social connections through shared cooking and eating
Grown in confidence by using a proper kitchen space

Why it matters

Beyond the cooking itself, this initiative supports the wider aims of Salford Loaves & Fishes. Their Skills for Life Centre provides employability help, IT and computer courses, ESOL sessions, yoga classes and more.

By providing a venue for cooking skills, we complement that broader framework and help people take meaningful steps towards independence, confidence and community connection.