Together Active volunteers at YMCA North Staffordshire’s Community Meal
On Friday 3rd March 2023, our team volunteered at YMCA North Staffordshire’s Community Meal, cooking chilli for the community.
YMCA North Staffordshire is a charity based in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent that supports young people in whatever they need; whether that be accommodation, employment and skills, providing a range of activities at their campus community, and more. They help build the critical foundations for a fresh, strong start for young people and a better quality of life in the community.
They are one of many YMCA bases located in England and Wales. You can find your local one here.
YMCA also offer support to people of all other ages and abilities; their monthly Community Meal being just one of them. Taking place on the first Friday of every month, the meal brings together anyone and everyone to share food, stories and have a chat with old and new friends.
Together Active has worked for many years with YMCA North Staffordshire on various projects to help improve young people’s mental health, and help them to get active.
When the opportunity arose for our team to volunteer at the meal, we couldn’t wait!
Once we had decided on what we were going to cook, we prepared a recipe and ingredients list for both vegetable and beef chilli.
On the day, we had a great time prepping, cooking and serving the meal to members of the community. We also enjoyed talking to them – meeting people of all different ages and backgrounds.
Our CEO, Carly Jones, says:
“Together Active is committed to ensuring we are connected to the communities where we work. The Community Meal at YMCA North Staffs is part of the fabric of our local area and being just round the corner from our office; how could we not?!
It was a wonderful opportunity to meet people and a great reminder about why do we what we do. We may have cooked a fabulous chilli, but what people were really there for was social inclusion and wellbeing. It was our pleasure to be part of such a welcoming, inclusive activity and no doubt we’ll be back again in the future.”
We also had kitchen staff members from the YMCA on hand if we had any questions or needed any help.
Thank you to everyone at the YMCA North Staffordshire for a brilliant day, as well as members of the community.
We’ll be sure to be back soon!
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