9KITCHENS

The Sisterhood Project

Plant-centered Ethnic food for Catering

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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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Since we started the project on 17 October:

• 2000 people enjoyed our meals

•  95% of our meals were plant-based

• 350 local families placed an order

• 500 hours of work for migrant women paid above the UK real living wage.

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THE BENEFITS

• Income generation for the women

• Enhanced confidence 

• Better integration 

• Lesser barriers between communities 

• Plant-centered creative and healthy meals inspired by ethnic cuisines

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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:

• a training arm (CIC entity) - 9kitchens Sisterhood CIC

• a business and employment entity (Ltd entity) - ​​​9kitchens Catering Ltd

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The CIC entity provides training in:

• Kitchen skills

• Health and Food Safety

• Transferrable life skills

• Employability skills

• Signposting

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The Ltd entity provides:

• A sustainable financial model to continue to support the Chefs

• Employment opportunities to some of the trained Chefs 

• Financial contribution to the training arm