Timebank South West celebrates after receiving National Lottery funding 

Timebank South West, is celebrating after being awarded almost £9,000 in National Lottery funding to support a new pilot project in Plymouth called ‘Plan It, Cook It, Share It.’

The new funding will help support resident-led cooking sessions aimed at increasing skills to plan and cook healthy homemade meals and build confidence to create recipes that can be shared and handed down to the next generation.

The project which will initially run in Barne Barton and Whitleigh, will also help provide a monthly sit-down ‘meal night’ to bring people together to have conversations and socialise over freshly cooked food. Timebank South West Director Liza Packer says “We know from talking to residents who live on their own that they miss having an evening sit-down meal with family or friends, which can increase their feelings of isolation and loneliness. Thanks to lottery players we can now bring people together over a heart-warming meal planned and cooked by residents. This project will help us to broaden our range of volunteering opportunities for residents and it fits well with our principles of timebanking which is all about giving and sharing time and skills and bringing people together to reduce social isolation”.

Timebank South West’s Chair Jo Bowden says “We are delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. This project will count towards helping people to combat loneliness and to cook a healthy meal on a budget”.

LiveWest will be working closely with the project Justine Cheffers, Community Connector says “We already support timebanking in Barne Barton and we are keen to help our residents to take part in this great project. We will offer free food hygiene training to our participating residents who want to enhance their CVs to increase their chances of employment”.

The project  will start at the end of this year and will create a new part-time post for someone. We will give regular updates on our website, social media and newsletter – so keep watching!