Most people, faced with the closure of a near twenty-year venture, would be in despair – more so when that venture is a charitable endeavour, with a strong track record, having helped to improve the lives of nearly 3,000 people whose lives had fallen into disarray. Not Beyond Food Foundation’s founder, Simon Boyle. Following the closure of The Brigade – an innovative restaurant employing people who faced challenges in life and giving them the training, experience, and qualifications to help turn their lives around – he picked himself up, dusted himself down, and set about achieving the Foundation’s goals through a different route.
PWC’s decision to change the use of the building, that they had generously made available to the Brigade for 16 years, was a blow; but Simon and his stalwart team, while looking for an alternative site for the restaurant, sought other ways to transform the lives of young people, disconnected from mainstream education and employment. Enter a partnership with the West Ham Foundation at their newly renovated hub, The Foundry, located at the club’s training ground in Beckton. What’s Cooking spoke to Simon and his Partnership and Finance Director, Jo Littman to find out more.
George Smith, Jo Littman
Both Simon and Jo are excited about what’s being achieved at the E6 Kitchen, a social enterprise in partnership with West Ham Foundation and supported by philanthropists and lifelong Hammers’ supporters Stephen Scobie and Anne Graham. The kitchen, located in the Foundry, which recently benefited from a £5M fit-out, is all about generating positive outcomes for disadvantaged local people, with a particular focus on social skills. It provides a haven for young people to go after school; find a quiet place to do homework, kick a ball around, and get much needed nutritious and tasty food. Anne Graham’s quote, on the West Ham Foundation’s website, sums up the need,
“The fact that so many children are hungry and don’t have enough food, or proper food, is terrible. It’s nice that we can help to try and address that in our own small way, but in a way that will affect people’s lives. I can’t wait to see how Simon [and Beyond Food Foundation] utilise that kitchen space” Anne Graham
Simon picks up the story,
“We opened E6 Kitchen in June last year, with the main goal of providing nutritious, freshly prepared meals to local young people—many of whom experience poverty, face disrupted lives, or have challenging backgrounds and complex needs. Alongside these meals, there’s the opportunity to use the adjacent £1 million 3G pitch. By combining exercise and healthy food, we aim to improve the lives of young people in our community. Since June, we have served over 11,000 meals.
“E6 is a versatile space, and we have been able to flip the use from a kitchen to a training facility, providing classrooms, private dining, and office space.”
Training is at the heart of Beyond Food’s philosophy and its Freshlife programme is the pulse. It is constantly evolving to ensure it stays fit for purpose and appeals to participants. Simon explained,
“Before COVID, the model was rooted in apprenticeships, but after COVID, we realised that we couldn’t just drop young people into apprenticeships after everything they’d been through, especially when they’d been traumatised. So, we have changed focus and Freshlife is now concerned with preparing young people for an apprenticeship with a good grounding in life skills, basic skills, work experience, building confidence and self-belief.
“We have honed the programme to an eight-week offer. Week one focuses on self-development or ‘looking after you’ – and covers self-belief, nutrition, personal hygiene, and changing perceptions. Week two is about sorting out the issues they face, the problems they have, and the barriers to achievement. Week three is all about inspiration – helping them make decisions on where they want to be, putting an ‘arm round their shoulders’ and giving a ‘poke in the ribs’ – both very effective!
“After a week off, they then start a four-week structured work experience, in a safe managed space, alongside trainers who allow them to ‘have a go’. The opportunities are not limited to hospitality – although that is the focus – what we are looking to do is help them find the right opportunity, whether that’s hospitality, plumbing, or something else.
“What they do get are transferable skills, there is a lot of writing involved and both English and maths are embedded in the experience – but most of the time they don’t realise it. They complete the programme more confident, with a sense of purpose, a plan, work experience to put on their CV, and hope for the future.”
The work experience can be extended as needed; conversely, if an individual is flying, movement to an apprenticeship or employment can be accelerated. Young people are referred to the programme through the local community, youth offending partners, West Ham’s beneficiary schools, and word-of-mouth.
Alongside the social kitchen activity and training, Beyond Food Foundation cater for external events at other venues and make their facilities available for private dining as well as hiring out for other users. This offers different work experience opportunities for their trainees.
Help is not just limited to young people either, the team have created a programme for adults with disabilities, complex needs, or those whose lives have broken down. Adults Beyond Barriers is a varied programme focused on food. Through the power of cooking and preparing food from fresh ingredients and through the use of a number of facilitators (some paid, some voluntary), participants get development in a variety of ways – from improving tech skills (a recent tech company invited the group into their computer centre and provided 1:1 sessions), to CV workshops, to using a theatre company to use theatrical training to build confidence, improve inter-personal skills and communication. Food and cooking are the most important things and by the simple everyday activities of peeling, preparing, chopping and cooking food, the teams can engage vulnerable people in conversation, which is the first step in breaking down barriers. Simon adds,
“Adults Beyond Barriers delivers an unexpected by-product. I had not considered before that we were a meal provider, but at a recent event, one of our beneficiaries stood up and said,
“…[as well as the training]..these people feed me every day, and I have not had to worry about where my next meal is coming from for eight weeks.»
“Put into context, this means that we have provided over 600,000 meals since we began Beyond Food Foundation.”
As well as providing programmes at E6 through facilities provided by West Ham, Beyond Food have also been working with other partners including Your Place in Canning Town and working alongside West Ham United Foundation’s own employability programme The Training Ground Plus.
Beyond Food’s programmes are paid for through their own fundraising efforts. This income is from grants, fundraising events, PWC’s on-going financial support, and other donations. Since the closure of the Brigade, income has dropped by 35% and the goal is now to replace that income with support from new partners, new commercial activity, and ‘cutting their cloth’ differently. The charity now runs with a smaller team, but fundraising is crucial as it costs £1,895 per person to deliver Freshlife and that’s before the cost of work experience and uniforms.
The support of the Cooks Charity has been welcome. The £19,500 grant included matched funding from City and Guilds and supported 10 people through the programme. One of these was Steven, a young man with health issues and learning difficulties who joined a Training Ground Plus programme being run in collaboration with Beyond Food. A dedicated West Ham fan, Steven had low self-confidence and, when he joined the programme couldn’t speak, didn’t eat anything but chicken nuggets, had never peeled a potato, or chopped an apple, or made a cup of tea.
Simon explained
“Steven grabbed the opportunity and developed his skills so that he was quickly able to use a knife and peeler and learned to cook simple things for himself and others. He has become a junior ambassador for the programme. He is now eating fresh, healthy food – with the occasional chicken nugget thrown in.”
Simon also highlighted the ‘pebble effect’ with the programme not only working for participants like Steven, but also their families or carers. In Steven’s case, it showed his mother that she needed to empower Steven and, rather than do everything for him, she needed to give him the freedom to try it for himself.
Steven was announced as the winner of the Male Rising Star Award – for exceptional progress in overcoming significant barriers – at the West Ham Foundation’s Gala Dinner & Awards held at Mansion House in December and, while not able to attend himself, the award was presented to him at a special event at E6, when West Ham goalie, Mads Hermansen turned up at the Hub, rolling his sleeves up to spend the day cooking, serving coffees and connecting with local residents whose lives had been changed by the work of the Foundation and its partners. Beyond Food led the team in the kitchen to prepare 25 meals for the festive celebration later that day. The highlight of the day came during the festive celebration where Hermansen had the honour of presenting Steven with his award. The people gathered learned how Steven’s journey with the Foundation and Beyond Food had changed his life. Once shy and withdrawn, he had grown in confidence, skills and ambition. Accepting his award, Steven surprised everyone by giving a powerful and emotional speech about his life and the phenomenal impact the programme had had on improving his life.
Simon is hugely appreciative of the support from the Cooks Charity over the last two years and is keen to build on the relationship and create a lasting legacy. He is keen to replicate the success at West Ham and work with other football foundations and wants to secure funding through the FA and others for a mobile food classroom to take the ‘show on the road’. He believes this would be a fabulous opportunity for the Cooks Charity to engage in – not just through potential financial support but a wider involvement through volunteering time to input in the programme delivery.
Alongside this ambition, he is determined to find a new venue for The Brigade in 2026. This time, it will their own space, they will be masters of their own destiny, and like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a re-birth of Beyond Food, in this their 20th anniversary year.
