9KITCHENS
The Sisterhood Project
9KITCHENS
The Sisterhood Project
Introducing the 9Kitchens project, our initiative that trains and employs local women in North West London.
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HOW IT ALL BEGAN
We started this community initiative to train and employ local women whom we met during the first lockdown in London. We felt that delivering food parcels to people who were willing to work was not sufficient to help them. We decided to employ one woman from Syria, then two, to start cooking for neighbours and friends.
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We started the project on 17 October 2020 as a community initiative to employ women during the lockdown. During that time:
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2000 people enjoyed our meals
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95% of our meals were plant-based
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350 local families placed an order
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500 hours of work for migrant women paid above the UK real living wage.
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THE BENEFITS
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Income generation for the women
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Enhanced confidence
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Better integration
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Lesser barriers between communities
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Plant-centered creative and healthy meals inspired by ethnic cuisines
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In September 2021, we decided to focus on catering. Since we have catered for private and corporate events from very large tech corp to charities. It is always a different story and we love this (from Moroccan couscous to Vietnamese Banh Mi, from Korean Bibimbap to French sophisticated canapes...). But the focus and mission remain unchanged, we believe in economic inclusion by training and employing women from various backgrounds and sustainable foods.
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OUR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE MODEL
9kitchens Sisterhood CIC (CIC means "community interest company") is a non profit organisation and 9kitchens Catering Ltd is a registered limited company.
So how do these two entities work together?
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In order to maximise our impact we have built a structure that includes:
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a training arm (CIC entity) - 9kitchens Sisterhood CIC
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a business and employment entity (Ltd entity) - ​​​9kitchens Catering Ltd
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The CIC entity provides training in:
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Kitchen skills
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Health and Food Safety
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Transferrable life skills
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Employability skills
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Signposting
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The Ltd entity provides:
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A sustainable financial model to continue to support the Chefs
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Employment opportunities to some of the trained Chefs
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Financial contribution to the training arm