St Cuthbert's is a vibrant community kitchen and drop-in day centre located in Earl’s Court. With a mission statement to ‘prove the community cares,’ it offers a safe sactuary to 750 people per month with beneficiaries consisting of primarily rough sleepers, and ‘the hidden homeless’, i.e. people with varying levels of mental health and/or substance misuse issues, the over 60s and those living below the poverty line.
St Cuthbert’s Centre opens from 10.30am-3.30pm, five days a week, to act as a strong safety net to build a more resilient local community by providing essential survival services such as food, shelter, showers and laundry facilities.
St Cuthbert’s has produced two videos on its Refettorio and services, the first to explain the changes at St Cuthbert’s and the other being a participatory films for which service users produced through learning camera techniques and interview skills. The film offers first-hand responses on the impact of St Cuthbert’s from its client group. Please see the two links below to view these videos.
We have a dedicated mental illness specialist counsellor as well as offering broader therapeutic support, a visiting nurse practitioner,an alcohol &substance misuse worker,as well as providing advice on homelessness/accommodation,healthcare,benefits,etc.
Our basic services include a focus on improved nutrition( cf below) & healthcare as well as inter alia showers,clothes resource,laundry & internet access.
In addition we offer a structured & engaging activities program including a culinary workshop( with appropriate accreditation to access the catering/F&B job market),a gardening workshop,computer/IT skills classes(including CV drafting),arts & crafts,knitting,film clubs ,a 60+ coffee morning,rough sleepers breakfast,etc.
In June 2017, St Cuthbert’s partnered with Italian NGO Food for Soul to become the UK’s first ‘Refettorio’ community kitchen in the UK. It now provides a nutritious three-course lunch service from Monday to Friday which is created from surplus ingredients that would otherwise be thrown out from supermarkets and other food suppliers. These are transformed into delicious meals and served to marginalised, dispossessed and socially vulnerable members of the community.
Each lunch session between seven and ten volunteers from the local community help with cooking and serving lunch directly to the tables, encouraging social interaction and breaking down barriers to help overcome stigmas about homeless, substance misuse and mental health By doing so the Centre aims to promote social inclusion as well as address issues of food waste and food poverty in recognition of the rising costs of food in London, along with the difficulty in accessing affordable and nutritious sustenance for the most vulnerable communities.
Our nutritious lunches are served to an average of 70 people each day (Monday to Friday). The client group includes rough sleepers, those with varying degrees of mental issues, and older people. Some of these have faced rejection, social stigma, and have felt ostracised and discriminated against. Our ethos and purpose is to value all our clients and to treat them with dignity and respect while encouraging interaction and social inclusion.
