An incredible evening of food, sustainability and social impact has raised £5,000 towards Waste to Wonder Worldwide’s Sustainability Cookery School in The Gambia.
On Thursday 3 September, we welcomed guests to The Urban Farmer Project in London for Plates with Purpose – an evening designed to bring people together around great food while raising vital funds for a project very close to our hearts.
And what an evening it was.
Thanks to the generosity of our guests, sponsors, partners, suppliers, chefs, social enterprises and everyone who donated their time and expertise, Plates with Purpose raised an incredible £5,000.
Every pound raised takes us another step closer to making the Sustainability Cookery School a reality.
Food with a purpose
Food was always going to be at the heart of Plates with Purpose.
The Sustainability Cookery School will help young people in The Gambia develop practical skills across sustainable cooking, agriculture, hospitality and entrepreneurship, creating opportunities for employment, enterprise and more sustainable livelihoods.
We wanted the event in London to reflect those same principles.
A huge thank you therefore goes to FoodSpace, Conor Spacey, Ali Honour and the entire team of chefs who gave an enormous amount of time, expertise and energy to the event.
From developing the menu and sourcing ingredients to preparation and service on the night, the team created a fantastic West African-inspired food experience for our guests.
Some of those ingredients didn’t have very far to travel either.
Square Mile Farms grew fresh leafy greens right there on-site at The Urban Farmer Project, meaning some of the produce travelled just 15 feet from farm to kitchen.
That’s our kind of food miles!
And when the night ended, nothing went to waste
For an event raising funds for a school that will teach sustainable cooking, agriculture, hospitality and entrepreneurship, while helping tackle food insecurity, it was important to us that those values didn’t stop when the last guest left.
So, at the end of Plates with Purpose, the surplus food from the evening was packed up and delivered to a local food bank that very same night.
Good food that could still be enjoyed wasn’t thrown away. It went somewhere it could be put to good use.
It might seem like a small part of a much bigger evening, but for us, it mattered.
Plates with Purpose was never just about talking about sustainability and social impact. We wanted those principles to run through the event itself – from food grown on-site and ingredients supplied by purpose-led organisations, to making sure the food left at the end of the night could support others too.
A huge thank you to our headline sponsor
An event like Plates with Purpose simply doesn’t happen without people getting behind an idea and helping turn it into reality.
We’d therefore like to say an enormous thank you to Fleet Street Quarter, our headline sponsor, for supporting Plates with Purpose and helping us make the evening possible.
Their support enabled us to bring together businesses, social enterprises, chefs and guests around a shared ambition to create positive impact.
The perfect home for Plates with Purpose
We couldn’t have asked for a more fitting venue than The Urban Farmer Project.
Surrounded by produce being grown in the heart of London, it provided the perfect backdrop for an event centred around food, sustainability and creating opportunities for the future.
We also have to give a very special shout-out to Mark Williams, who went above and beyond in helping us bring everything together.
From the preparation beforehand to making sure things worked on the night, Mark’s support was invaluable. Thank you, Mark!
Social enterprises supporting social impact
One of the things we were particularly proud of was the number of purpose-led organisations involved in Plates with Purpose.
Wherever possible, we wanted the products being served and used on the night to have a positive story behind them too.
Flawsome! donated a fantastic selection of soft drinks as well as curating and delivering our cocktail menu. The social enterprise saves wonky and surplus fruit while supporting farmers through fair prices, creating drinks with no added sugar or unnecessary nasties.
Rice Inc is dedicated to fighting world hunger and alleviating poverty through its sustainable rice brand, Paddi. They generously supported the evening with rice, coconut sugar and rice wine.
Beyond Belief takes surplus food and turns it into flavour-packed beer, using ingredients that might otherwise have gone to waste, including surplus pasta, fruit, grains and bakery products.
Lemonaid donated a selection of its organic, Fairtrade soft drinks. Through its approach and the Lemonaid & ChariTea Foundation, the company also supports social projects in communities around the world.
Amplify Goods creates sustainable soaps, scents and everyday washroom and kitchen products designed to put people and planet first – transforming everyday essentials into drivers of positive social and environmental impact.
Having organisations like these involved meant that the purpose behind Plates with Purpose extended far beyond fundraising alone.
£5,000 closer to making the Cookery School a reality
The biggest thank you of all goes to everyone who showed up and supported us.
Whether you bought a ticket, made a donation, sponsored the event, provided ingredients, donated drinks, contributed a raffle, volunteered your time, cooked, served, helped behind the scenes or simply came along and embraced what Plates with Purpose was all about – you played a part in raising that £5,000.
The Sustainability Cookery School is about much more than teaching people how to cook.
Our ambition is to create a space where young people can develop practical, transferable skills in food, sustainable agriculture, hospitality and entrepreneurship, helping create pathways towards employment and enterprise while supporting greater food security and sustainable livelihoods.
That’s what the £5,000 raised at Plates with Purpose will help us work towards.
What happens next?
Plates with Purpose may be over, but the journey certainly isn’t.
We’ll continue working with our partners to move the Sustainability Cookery School forward and will be sharing updates as the project develops.
For now, though, we want to celebrate what happened when an incredible group of people and purpose-led organisations came together for one evening.
£5,000 raised.
One incredible collective effort.
And one huge step closer to making the Waste to Wonder Worldwide Sustainability Cookery School in The Gambia a reality.
To every person and organisation who played a part in Plates with Purpose: thank you. We couldn’t have done it without you.
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