FoodCycle Bloomsbury has a new home – in Finsbury Park! Project Leader, Jenny Dickson talks about why they have moved location and their hopes for the future.
How long have you volunteered for FoodCycle Bloomsbury? How did you get involved?
I have been a Project Leader at Bloomsbury, now Finsbury Park(!), for about a year and a half now. I became a Project Leader straight away because I knew I would enjoy the experience and was already passionate about the work that the charity does. My brothers were volunteers when they were at university in Bristol so I already had a pretty good idea about the values of the charity and the way that it works. They both highly recommended the experience and knew I would love being a part of it.
Why did you chose to move location? How did you come to choose Finsbury Park?
Our Project Leader team have been searching for a new venue for a while because we have a big team and feel that we can handle more. We are very fond of our Somers Town location and have really enjoyed being in the community with many guests having regularly come to our sessions for years. However, the space can only sit around 30 people and our food suppliers give us enough to serve many more guests.
Our search has only been in the central north London area as we wanted to keep as close as we could to our current community. Also, the north London area is not covered yet by FoodCycle (well now it has Cricklewood!) which is a large area in need. Finsbury Park in particular has been one of worst affected areas for child poverty as well as homelessness. With this move, we will have space for up to 120 guests!
Can you describe a bit about Finsbury Park and the new venue?
The space we have, The Finsbury Park Community Hub, is easily accessible via tube and bus routes as well as being in the middle of a large housing estate. We are hoping we can help unite the community as well as reach out to those in need of a hot meal.
Our new hub is ideal, not only because of the location, but also because it is spacious. Having a larger seating area will allow for more guests and a larger kitchen and serving area means that we can have more volunteers! We have such a large cohort of volunteers that would love to help us more as well as new volunteers being eager to try out sessions. With this new space, once we have more guests, we are hoping to expand our volunteering opportunities.
