Hartlepool charity hopes new community kitchen will relieve foodbank pressures
LilyAnne's Wellbeing has recently moved to Titan House
Last updated 1st May 2025
A Hartlepool charity's hoping a new 'community kitchen' will put less pressure on foodbanks which are being used almost seven days a week.
Its aim is to help people by teaching them how to make meals with what they get as well as offering its microwave and oven for use.
Angela Arnold, co-creator of LilyAnne's Wellbeing, said: "During Covid we found a lot of 'oh well I don't like this so you can have this', and what we found is that people don't necessarily know what to do to make it last as long as it should, so we're bringing in a chef who's going to volunteer and help teach people how to utilise their foodbank properly, so instead of getting one or two days out of it, they're going to be getting a week out of it which means less strain on the foodbanks.
"We're going to be teaching them how to batch cook and do meal prep, so if they're doing a chicken curry and there's only one person, freeze the rest, put it into tubs and freeze it, keep it in the freezer and then when you're ready just stick it a microwave or come and stick it into ours if you haven't got one."
Trevor Sherwood, co-creater of LilyAnne's Wellbeing, said: "It's going to be open for people to learn to cook, it's going to be open for people who are struggling with the cost of living who can't afford to put their own oven on, come and put ours on. It's kind of like we're going to help people cook, we're going to help people eat and we're going to just make sure that people know how to use a kitchen and stop depending on takeaways and they're not wasting food that could be used and utilised.
"It's quite a unique concept because we don't have a community kitchen in Hartlepool. It's literally going to be a big educational space where people can come in, relax, they can get mental health support whilst they're cooking a meal which a lot of people talk better in an activity and if you're learning how to do something, your mind's not focussed on how you're feeling."
LilyAnne's Wellbeing has just moved to a bigger premises at Titan House.
Angela added: "It allows us to be able to offer support in a variety of ways whereas before it was in the coffee shop and that was your private space whereas now, we've got private spaces so we can hold one to ones, we've got space where we can hold a group session and we can still run the coffee shop as normal to bring in the money to pay it all really."
Trevor added: "We completely separated the coffee shop because we know not everyone is here for support. Some people just want coffee but the coffee is what pays for us to deliver all of the charitable work and through a separate door, we've created the Hartlepool Health and Wellbeing Hub which is a massive space where people can come and chill, they can play games, they can access support and peer to peer groups.
"The coffee shop was a double-edged sword. People came in, they'd completely trust us and opened us to us but as someone who was just coming in to sit and drink a coffee, it could be difficult for them hearing some of the stuff that they were being exposed to, and the person who was coming in for that help really wasn't bothered about the lack of confidentiality because all they needed at the point was someone who cared and someone who listened."