The VINCI UK Foundation has granted Home to Work’s Allotment Kitchen project in Cleator Moor £4,125 to fit out a kitchen and dining facility, while The Good Lives Project will receive £3,000 for gardening equipment to transform wasteland at Westlakes Science Park near Whitehaven into a cultivated plot.

In its mission to combat social exclusion and strengthen the communities surrounding its businesses, the VINCI UK Foundation has granted West Cumbrian charity Home to Work a total of £7,125 for two healthy eating projects.

As well as the financial contribution, VINCI Energies employee Ian Rae will donate some of his time and professional skills as sponsor to help further the projects.

Home to Work has been a registered charity since 2001 and provides support services, skills and training for disadvantaged individuals living in the local communities in West Cumbria.

Space for Cookery Lessons

The first of Home to Work’s initiatives to receive a VINCI UK Foundation grant is the Allotment Kitchen project in Cleator Moor, which will use the £4,125 donation to fit out a kitchen and dining facility, where local people can come together to learn basic cooking skills they can use at home with their families, enhancing their overall health and self-esteem.

Sponsor Ian Rae, Sector Manager for Cumbria at VINCI Energies business Actemium Design UK, said: “I’m a born and bred West Cumbria lad and have seen the struggles people can have simply making ends meet and trying to have a decent life. This project excels in its simplicity and helps deal with basic issues.”

New cultivated plot

wasteland at Westlakes Science Park near Whitehaven into a cultivated plot.

_{(from left) Susan Lussem, Sellafield Supply Chain Director; Karen Jones, Managing Director of Home to Work; Ian Rae, Sector Manager at Actemium Design UK}

In its mission to combat social exclusion and strengthen the communities surrounding its businesses, the VINCI UK Foundation has granted West Cumbrian charity Home to Work a total of £7,125 for two healthy eating projects.

As well as the financial contribution, VINCI Energies employee Ian Rae will donate some of his time and professional skills as sponsor to help further the projects.

Home to Work has been a registered charity since 2001 and provides support services, skills and training for disadvantaged individuals living in the local communities in West Cumbria.

Space for cookery lessons

The first of Home to Work’s initiatives to receive a VINCI UK Foundation grant is the Allotment Kitchen project in Cleator Moor, which will use the £4,125 donation to fit out a kitchen and dining facility, where local people can come together to learn basic cooking skills they can use at home with their families, enhancing their overall health and self-esteem.

Sponsor Ian Rae, Sector Manager for Cumbria at VINCI Energies business Actemium Design UK, said: “I’m a born and bred West Cumbria lad and have seen the struggles people can have simply making ends meet and trying to have a decent life. This project excels in its simplicity and helps deal with basic issues.”

New cultivated plot

The second Home to Work initiative to receive a VINCI UK Foundation grant is The Good Lives Project. This project aims to transform an area of wasteland at Westlakes Science Park near Whitehaven into an organised, cultivated plot where schools and other community groups can learn about the benefits of planting and growing their own food.

Working on their own or as part of a larger group, volunteers at The Good Lives Project will increase their confidence and knowledge of gardening and healthy eating and have the opportunity to sell their produce at the local market. The £3,000 VINCI UK Foundation grant will purchase gardening tools and equipment for the staff and volunteers, ranging from strimmers and movers to spades and forks for adults and children.

Karen Jones, Managing Director of Home to Work added: “Many of our learners suffer from multiple, complex issues and we wanted to provide a new option that was different from our existing skills-based activities. The food growing project gives the health benefits of working in the fresh air, getting exercise and the confidence from contributing to a community project. In recent years, we have also seen a growing need for food banks and other ways of getting food to those who need it. This project will also address this and provide good, healthy food to the local community with a low carbon footprint. We really appreciate the support from VINCI in making the dream a reality.”

The VINCI UK Foundation was created in 2016 to tackle social exclusion and improve access to training, employment, housing, healthcare, mobility and leisure activities for society’s most disadvantaged. Since then, the Foundation has provided practical and financial support to 169 local, often underfunded charities and community projects across the UK and Ireland.

More details can be found at www.skills-4-you.com and www.vinci-uk-foundation.co.uk