We are back! Today we are going to know all about Kitchen Community Collective and one of the amazing women behind it, Deniz.
Deniz moved to the UK from Turkey about 10 years ago and she used to work as a social worker in North London, which meant she had so many good connections to start her CIC.
Not only that, but her Master’s thesis was on the social integration of women migrating to London.
Deniz really understands the social fabric and reality of a lot of immigrant women.
An idea was formed.
Why not improve the life of immigrant women starting from a kitchen?
Why not create a safe space to improve one’s skills and knowledge?
They registered Kitchen Community Collective as a CIC this February and had they grand opening on the 12th of March. I was there and the food was divine.
They have big goals, they want to do 10 events in the first year alone and reach 50 women that need assistance with getting on their feet.
And the biggest goal of all, open their own restaurant. They want to create a space for women where they can learn new skills, learn English and become independent.
Deniz found Hackney Impact just through a simple search and she has then been part of our Grow Your Business programme where she learned how to set up a CIC and she picked up a lot on how social media works and how to use it for business purposes. Plus, through Hackney Impact she was able to introduce the Kitchen Community Collective at events and to people!
However, running a CIC has its own challenges. Deniz opened up to what difficulties she is facing.
Income is a big issue as they are all running it on a volunteer based now and they want to provide work for women in the future.
The space as well is a big challenge as they need a physical space to cook and hold events so they rely on other organisations and restaurants lending them the space.
All these challenges and difficulties get easier when Deniz thinks about how proud she is.
She is proud of how connected she is to the Turkish community and how she constantly gets ideas from them.
She is proud of how she is integrating different communities together through food.
She is proud of how she is empowering women.
The last question I had for Deniz was on a tip that she has for people just starting their CIC journey.
She said to always get a professional that knows what they are doing because you can’t do e everything by yourself.
Non-profits organisations are here to help the community so always observe, test and ask questions! Never be afraid to ask people questions to better what you offer.
And this is all from me today.
Until next time,
B.
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