When Community Care Becomes Community Action: South Norwood Community Kitchen

This blog is part of a series highlighting the amazing work of our grantee partners.

Poverty, homelessness, racism, social isolation, and discrimination. These are just some of the issues South Norwood Community Kitchen (SNCK) is taking on.

SNCK started out as a volunteer-led community kitchen. They aimed to turn surplus food into a safe and inclusive environment for those most in need. This community hub fast became a hub of action. They are now working with their guests to build power and take on the issues that matter most to them.

And they are already winning. In a short space of time, their organising has led to new council homes; the distribution of £500,000 to residents exploited by their landlords; and halting discriminatory legislation around street drinking.

Impact

In 2021, SNCK served 12,000 meals to residents in South Norwood and the surrounding area. But their work did not stop there. Over the past two years, they have built a local organising team to take on the major challenges facing their community.

They organised with residents from an estate in South Norwood, winning new council homes for over 50 families living in appalling conditions. Through this action, the council also terminated their repairs contract and redistributed over £500,000 to residents through class action and support funds.

Again, their work did not stop there. They took the campaign to Westminster and brought 10 MPs to the estate to meet with residents. This led to concrete recommendations on social housing improvements to the regulator.

SNCK build power through alliances with schools, sports clubs, civic groups, law centres, and businesses. Through this work, they created a local organising network called Croydon Community Action. This network organises on asylum rights, trans rights, and homelessness. Recently, they halted the criminalisation of street drinking in South Norwood. By putting the most affected first , they showed the discriminatory impact of this policy.

Next steps

SNCK aims to ramp up their organising work. They want to do even more with the young people, people in unsuitable housing, and those who have migrated to the UK who make up a significant portion of their guests.

With funding from the Civic Power Fund, they will identify and mentor community leaders from these cohorts. They are also building deeper alliances to challenge the attitudes, prejudices, and policies that hold them back. In all their work, they aim to provide evidence-based alternatives to our broken structures.

South Norwood Community Kitchen shows the incredible potential of community-driven change. Their bias towards action has created a vital community hub that is building the power of those most in need. We can’t wait to see what they do next. And by sharing their story, we hope they can inspire others to follow suit.