Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts: Communities leading the way

Having access to good, nutritious food is a human right. More than just consumption, food is a way to connect, to build community, and to share, whether that’s sharing bread between family members at dinner, or new friends sharing stories over a meal. We tend to get through the best and worst moments of our lives with some connection to food and drink, and recently, as things have started to open more moments of reconnection have also happened around the table.

But while things generally seem to be improving, our connection to and through food may not be. Levels of food insecurity in the UK are about 250% higher than they were previous to lockdown, and about 4.9 million adults and 1.7 million children are currently food insecure. Although this has been made worse by the pandemic, it was already a rising trend before that.

But as always, when faced with the need to make things better, its our own communities that lead the way.

Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts started as an emergency response to the Covid-19 crisis, and since its beginnings in March 2020, they have delivered more than 1,109,000 meals across the city. Community volunteers turn donated food into lunches, dinners and snacks. These are then packed into ‘day packs’ and delivered across Edinburgh by yet more volunteers. Meals are delivered with absolutely no means testing and no judgement.

In its home in Leith Theatre, EKFH is not just a place to volunteer, it’s a place to meet people, make friends, develop skills, and have a laugh as you work - and they’re always looking for more volunteers to join and become:

Drivers

Chefs

Kitchen assistants

Packers

HR specialists

Logistics officers

Social media team

IT specialists

If you’re interested - check out their website here!

Below we’ve put together a list of our favourite books about food, community, and connection, and 10% of the profits will be donated to Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts.

You can donate directly using this link