Annual Cook Day is the Foundation’s community meal. Food is cooked in the open, in large pots, by volunteers and community members working side by side, and it is served to anyone who comes.
There is no register at the gate and no assessment of need. That is deliberate. A queue that asks people to prove they are poor enough to eat is a queue many will not join, and the ones who stay away are often those who most needed the meal. Cook Day removes the question entirely.
The work starts long before the food does. Volunteers source and move ingredients, set up cooking points, arrange seating and water, and organise the serving so that older people and children are not left standing. Others handle photography and documentation. Logistics volunteers keep supplies moving between cooking points through the day.
What makes the day worth more than the meal is who ends up in the same place. Families the Foundation already works with through maternal and child care and education sit alongside neighbours who have never approached us. Conversations start. People who need something ask for it, sometimes for the first time, and the team is standing right there when they do.
Cook Day runs annually and takes volunteers in cooking, logistics, event support and media. It is one of the easier days to join if you have never volunteered before: the work is physical, the instructions are simple, and you will not be short of company.
To take part, see the Annual Cook Day programme page or register as a volunteer. To help fund the next one, support our work, or get in touch about sponsoring a distribution round.