A non-profit community organisation from Stockport is providing free meals to families and children during the cost of living crisis.
The Cherry Tree Project is a non-profit, youth-led community group, based in Romiley, Stockport, that supports their local community throughout the year with weekly sessions and holiday activities.
The group is open to all ages, currently running four youth groups, three clubs, and two food banks weekly at their centre in Cherry Tree.
Rachel Stephens, one of the group’s project leaders, said: “When we started the project, the kids on the estate were sometimes viewed as not being as good, or not being as clever, or not having as much opportunity as the kids that live outside of the estate.
“These kids are now leaders in their community, there’s now a large group of teenagers who know their worth and who actually have an opportunity to have a voice, and that’s the really my favourite impact.
“They’ve done amazing work and have taken the project to places I never could have taken it.”
The group continues to provide free food and meals to struggling children in Stockport during the cost of living crisis, making their work more vital than ever, even attracting the attention of celebrities such as Strictly star Will Mellor.
Mrs Stephens said: “We’re going to have to be open to people who aren’t included in free school meals because it’s not just those with free school meals who are facing food poverty, it’s much wider than that, so we’re going to be open to more kids that would be classed as ‘entitled’.”
The project initially started for about six months as a youth group, before the covid lockdown shut the group down.
At the height of the lockdown, their teenage volunteers provided 150 cooking packages and 150 food parcels every week as they worked hard all through the lockdown.
Since March 2020, they have supplied 3089 ingredient packs and at least 12,356 meals to families during the lockdowns and school holidays.
Will Mellor recently asked the group if they could be his main choice of charity, so to support his Strictly Come Dancing journey, the group sold T-shirts in Romiley, with the profits from the sale donated to the community project itself.
The group’s next fundraiser will be the adults hiking Hadrian’s wall to raise money for the Stockport food net, for April 2023.
The Cherry Tree project is a part of the Stockport Tree Network and participates in food collections with local food banks to feed people during unprecedented times.
Numerous volunteers of the project said how welcoming the group is, making everyone feel like family.
One volunteer said: “It’s a safe space where any kid can come and have a good time, get food and not worry about the outside world.”
“Keep shouting about it, just keep telling people we exist.” Mrs Stephens said.
Donate to the Cherry Tree Project here: https://gofund.me/23b02433
Read more about the community here: https://www.stockport.gov.uk/profile/cherry-tree-project
