Larder charity is praised in top awards
A local charity has been praised for its work in making sure nobody in West Lothian goes hungry.
The Larder are delighted to announce that they were recognised as ‘Highly Commended’ in the Social Enterprise Awards, Social Enterprise of the Year category.
This award was a first for the Social Enterprise Awards as The Larder’s dedicated work in the fight against food poverty couldn’t go without recognition from the judges.
The Social Enterprise Awards Scotland are a real opportunity for Social Enterprises such as The Larder to showcase their incredible work within the Social Enterprise Sector. These awards showcase the agility, ability and active role this sector can play in building places, supporting communities and making a positive impact on our environment and wellbeing.
Those shortlisted represent the incredible work that organisations have done in one of their toughest years.
The Larder are an ambition-driven, innovative social enterprise who use food as a catalyst for social change. They provide training for young people on employability, life skills, health and wellbeing all alongside learning to cook.
Their cafes provide space for work experience and their social food projects interrupt the national standard response to food poverty by providing nutritious meals and a safe space for those experiencing food insecurity; creating access to quality food in a dignified way.
Like many social enterprises, The Larder faced potential closure as faceto-face working and trading across the world stopped. The pandemic tested them as a team and despite the fact that no job was safe, they did not hesitate in doing everything they could to continue their services.
The team moved tuition online, where possible, and in response to the closure of cafes, redesigned their food poverty project, Catalyst Kitchen, to a delivery model.
Despite the many hurdles, The Larder had a staggeringly successful year; supporting 199 young people in training
and delivering over 115,000 meals to people experiencing food insecurity.
It is for this reason that The Larder have been awarded as ‘Highly Commended’ as their dedication, passion and drive for social change has proved life-changing and through strong leadership, they have grown to be the most successful training provider in West Lothian; in one of the world’s most challenging years.
Angela Moohan, CEO at The Larder said: “We are so proud to have been awarded this accolade, the first-ever Highly Commended to be awarded by Social Enterprise Scotland judges. We know that The Larder changes lives for the
most disadvantaged and this award pays tribute to the hard work and dedication of our amazing team of staff and volunteers. This recognition at a national level, along with the feedback that we get from the people that we support, tells us that we are doing the right things at this very challenging time. We would be unable to do any of our work without the support of our partners and funders so a huge thank you to all of them.”
To find out more about The Larder’s services, visit @LarderTraining or their website www.thelarder.org or check out the other successful groups by heading to https://socialenterpriseawards.scot/