Winn Gardens

Sheffield Soroptimists were finalists for an International award at the Edinburgh conference.

ONGOING SOCIAL ACTION IN SHEFFIELD.

Partnerships St John’s Church (Owlerton); Sheffield City Council, Tesco supermarket, King Edward VII School and S6 Food Bank.

This built on a past project, “Healthy Hampers”, started in 2019, which provided slow cookers, kitchen utensils, cool bags, recipe cards and food to women’s refuges and Winn Garden. The Club continue to support Winn Gardens, an economically challenged and very diverse estate in Sheffield, which houses many asylum seekers and women escaping domestic violence. A Club member is active as a community champion at the estate and the community pioneer spoke to Club members at one of our meetings. The cost of living crisis has exacerbated the level of poverty and deprivation experienced by the residents of Winn Gardens. Project Aim: to tackle food and fuel poverty in one of Sheffield’s most deprived estates, and educate families with regard to healthy living. The Club have continued to provide slow cookers, the most fuel economic way of cooking, to resident families, alongside recipe cards (developed by Sixth Form Girls as part of our “Share Our Skills” project) and one of the members delivered regular cookery lessons to educate the residents on nutritious and economic meals. Members also sourced and provided cookery equipment, food, clothes and household items which were delivered on a regular basis. They also provided the funding for community events and children’s parties. Members also helped with lunches during the school holidays (for children eligible for free school meals) and, with their partner Tesco, they provided back-to-school shirts for every child on the estate.

One of the members trained as a community champion and now supports the estate for at least five hours per week as a volunteer, for 50 weeks. It involves all Club members as well as external partners helping women to start a new life. Several members collect donations and make regular deliveries, two hours a week on average. The project supported on a weekly basis at least 40 large families (i.e. more than five family members), 60 small families, as well as 60 other individuals, including men and boys. The Sustainable Development Goals achieved were SDG 1 No poverty and SDG 3 Ensure healthy lives. The Club is proud of this project because it empowers women to take care of themselves and children by enabling them to cook nutritious, economic and healthy meals through cookery classes.