A community allotments association in Ashtons Green, St Helens, has beaten hundreds of projects nationwide to be shortlisted in the latest Stoves Community Kitchens campaign and is in the running to win up to £5,000 worth of kitchen appliances.
Ashtons Green Community Allotments, which runs a number of community support initiatives, is one of ten charities and organisations shortlisted in the Community Kitchens competition, which is run by British cooking brand Stoves to enrich local community projects by offering thousands of pounds of cooking appliances to help them transform their kitchen facilities.
Ashtons Green Community Allotments Association, prides itself on working with the community in many ways, including with the Change Grow Live St Helens group, which helps people recover from addictions such as alcohol and drugs. They help to recycle pallets into garden furniture and run Cooking in the Community and Sow, Grow and Eat programmes with local groups with great success. The Association also provides a Friday night drop in for elderly residents.
Paul Llewellyn, of Ashtons Green Community Allotments Association, said: “We make a vast difference to a lot of people’s lives with the activities that take place at Ashtons Green, but unfortunately last year, after our Halloween party which hosts around 150 local people, our electric oven packed up in our kitchen and we are desperate for the funds for a replacement.”
Jane Rylands of Stoves’ parent company, Glen Dimplex Home Appliances, said: “We fully believe that the heart of the home – and the community – is the kitchen, and we are therefore always keen to support charities and projects who are putting something back into their communities.
“Since the competition started three years ago, we’ve provided charities and projects with more than £50,000 of appliances to help them reaching the most vulnerable in their communities and we are looking forward to supporting more of these deserving organisations in the coming months.”
The public vote, conducted via the Stoves website https://www.stoves.co.uk/community-kitchen-voting-2018/ is open until Monday May 28th 2018. Full details of all the projects can be found on the voting page.
Bronze, silver and gold packages worth between £2,000 and £5,000 will then be awarded to winning projects.
