Ali Kakande is a Life Coach and founder of Carib Eats – a social enterprise that exists to bring people together via Canteens, providing a Caribbean-inspired meal, activities and support. Carib Eats provides a feeling of connection and respite for guests who are often lonely and isolated. Supported by volunteers some of whom are younger members of the community, Carib Eats provides opportunities for intergenerational learning. Ali tells us about the invaluable work of Carib Eats, and how grant funding is vital to it, along with wide support from volunteers.

What does your charity do?
Carib Eats is a social enterprise that provides a service for the community through food. Carib Eats cook, connect and chat. Our passion is to bring people together via Canteens, providing a Caribbean-inspired meal, activities and support.

What are the challenges your service users face, and how does your organisation help users overcome them?
Our service users or, as we like to call them, guests are often lonely and isolated, lacking a feeling of connection. A Carib Eats Canteen provides connections to neighbours and gives an opportunity to share personal histories, which improve people’s wellbeing. We also offer opportunities for volunteers who often benefit as much as our guests. Some of our volunteers are younger members of the community, so Carib Eats offer intergenerational learning.

Do you have an inspirational story/moment about your work that you would like to share?

We receive feedback from our guests and volunteers a lot, which inspires me. One particular moment that stands out took place on the morning of one of our canteens. I decided to buy some flowers as a prize for bingo. Whilst I was picking the flowers, I saw a bright pink punch of flowers and, all though I’d already got flowers, something made me go back and buy them. We played bingo and the prizes were given out. The pink bunch were on the table. One guest hadn’t won anything, so I said, ‘I would like to give you these’. She smiled and said, ‘I love flowers so much, but I can’t afford to buy them for myself. I don’t think you know how much this means to me as I haven’t received flowers for years.’ This moment reminded me that it is often the small things that can have a big impact.

For me personally, a moment that touched me was after a Canteen I was clearing away and turned round to see two guests sweeping up. We couldn’t find a pan to sweep the rubbish, so they made something from cardboard. I thanked them and they said, ‘this is the least we can do, you turn up every week and serve us.’

What kind of support are you in need of right now and how might volunteering fit into that?
As with most social enterprises our current model is reliant on grant funding, which is hit-and-miss. We need volunteers who can help us with fundraising to allow us to continue, and the funds to enable us to think about a more sustainable model. Donating and becoming a supporter by sharing our work will help. In addition to this, we need volunteers who are brilliant at marketing and branding. Beyond this, if you have more time to give, get in touch with ELBA and come down to help out at one of our canteens.