Ally and Tassja from Team Casserole Club
The Casserole Club team has had a refresh recently, with a number of new faces helping to grow the project and build on our success to date. Tassja, Ally, Daniel, Cullain, Jon and Matt have been working on Casserole Club over the past few weeks to help support the expansion of the project into Tower Hamlets and Barnet. We’re also sorry to say goodbye to Kat, Casserole’s lead organiser since last Christmas, who is moving on to pastures new. She’s been fantastic at cooking up new relationships for Casserole Club and strengthening the community with every bite. Thanks for all your work, Kat!
Here the team give us their thoughts on why they like working on Casserole Club and how they’ve found the experience so far…
Matt – Project Lead: I’ve been working on the Casserole Club since the end of 2012. Having a background in local government, one of the reasons I enjoy working on Casserole so much is the different approach to developing a service that we take (check out our previous blog post). I’ve loved working with the team to come up with solutions to the challenges that we have faced developing the Casserole Project over the last few months. It’s also hugely motivating to be involved in a project where you can visibly see the positive difference we make in people’s lives. As Project Lead I spend a lot of time encouraging more areas to sign up to the Casserole project, manage our funding, and generally look after the rest of the team.
Jon - Matchmaking & Customer Service Lead: Casserole Club has got to be one of the funnest things I’ve ever worked on, and it’s incredibly important too – social isolation and food poverty are some the biggest issues facing our country today. And having been around Casserole on and off for a good year now, it’s so exciting to see how we’ve grown in that time! Along with Matt I help run all our customer service and engagement stuff, that’s everything from making sure we’ve got working email addresses right through to our strategy for working with partner organisations and signing up Diners.
Tassja – Matchmaking Team: My second day in the Casserole team I got to meet Kay, one of our recently signed up Tower Hamlets Diners. We sat in her living room, hearing about how she found Casserole Club, how much she loved chatting with her Cook, Rhonda, and stories of her travels around the world. It was amazing to hear first hand how much of an impact Casserole Club had had on Kay after only one meal share. She loved the company, getting to meet and have a chat with someone new in her area and of course having a tasty home cooked meal delivered to her home. This was echoed by so many of our Diners whenever we called them up, but equally so by our Cooks. After all our meal shares we try to contact both the Cook and Diner to find out how they found it and Cooks always mentioned how much they loved getting to know and spending time with elderly people in their area. The vision behind Casserole Club is to help combat social isolation through a meal share with elderly person in your area – Through speaking to our members I have noticed that Casserole has become a way for both Cooks & Diners to build new relationships with neighbours but also help re-establish community in a fun and authentic way.
Daniel – Matchmaking Team: I have been working on Casserole Club or a few months now, focusing on the Tower Hamlets project. I have met some inspiring people in the borough, from keen cooks who want to share their food to older residents who have lived in the East End all their lives and could really benefit from a home-cooked meal. I look forward to seeing the project grow!
Ally – Matchmaking Team: I’ve been involved with the launch of Casserole Club in Barnet. I love working with Casserole because I believe that theres something amazing about the sharing of food that has the power to tackle social isolation and transform our communities. We’re already seeing people in the borough who would rarely have interacted before getting to know each other and sharing delicious meals. I most enjoy meeting our cooks and diners and organising events to facilitate their interaction. Hearing about the friendships that have developed between them is the best bit of the job!
Culainn – Matchmaking Team: I’m one of four new staff members for Casserole Club. I’ve just finished a degree in Industrial Design and have a history in care home volunteering. I’ll be bringing Casserole Club to Barnet, so sign up now and watch out for our community events. Awesome at: Design thinking, Chatting to old people, Listening. Random Fact: Desire to reduce everybody’s dependence on the Government.
Casey – Matchmaking Team: Hi, I’m Casey! I am one of the organizers for Casserole Club in Tower Hamlets. I love working with Casserole Club because it is an amazing organization that helps pair and form relationships between elderly people and their neighbors through food. What could be better? It is the type of organization that benefits both the employees and participants alike in an incredible way, and I love that I get to be a part of it!
We also want to say a massive thank you to all of our Cooks and Diners in Tower Hamlets, Barnet and Reigate and Banstead – we would be nowhere without you!
Culainn working up an appetite with Age UK Barnet