vegan charity

Raising money for vegan community kitchen

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Made in Hackney is a legendary vegan kitchen dedicated to feeding vulnerable and at-risk Londoners.

If you don’t know about their amazing cooking classes and community outreach, click here to read all about them.

The biggest news for the charity is the fundraising campaign just about to come to a close. How much money does Made in Hackney need to raise for 2022?

£150,000 and they are about 70% of the way to the target.

This money will help Made in Hackney make delicious and nutritious meals, as well as deliver them to households around Hackney.

To help raise awareness of the fundraising campaign, I am having a chat with Made in Hackney founder Sarah Bentley on Tuesday December 28, 2021 at 6:30pm.

If you don’t see this in time, I will share the Live video online.

Please click here to donate some spare cash (if you have it) and help Made in Hackney feed our community.

Win a year’s supply of vegan sweets

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This competition is all about the win/win.

By simply taking part, you will be raising funds for an important social enterprise that is helping tackle homelessness in London. And if you win the comp? You get a one year’s supply of vegan pick n mix.

Oh, yes. You actually can’t lose! Well, you might not win the sweets but you get the meaning. You win by helping.

I suppose you want facts now. Well, I’ve got ’em.

Poster Bakes is an online vegan pick n mix shop founded to raise funds in support of The Connection, a social enterprise helping people move away from the streets of London and towards a happier and more fulfilling life.

The price of a single bag of sweets from Poster Bakes could cover the cost of someone receiving a shower, breakfast, and a cup of coffee in The Connection which in turn opens the doors to more in-depth support.

The vegan pick n mix initiative has been incredibly popular and I have a feeling it is about to go into overdrive.

You can enter this competition for a chance to win one year’s supply of vegan pick n mix from Poster Bakes! You just need to buy some sweets and find a golden ticket in your order.

It’s getting all Willy Wonka up in here!

The competition starts Monday 14th June, 2021 and will be running for a few weeks until Poster Bakes have sent out all their golden tickets tickets.

They will be randomly giving away 5 golden tickets in total, each of which will entitle the winner to a year’s supply of free sweets (a 500g bag every month for 12 months). Winners will be chosen at random from those who have entered the giveaway. This is what you need to do:

I’d love to know if you entered and I’d love to know if you win. Don’t forget who hooked you up with this info if you are suddenly swamped with vegan pick n mix.

Vegan bakery and sweets to help homeless

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Poster Bakes is a vegan bakery and social enterprise run by The Connection at St Martin’s, a homelessness charity that operates within Central London.

Poster Bakes started out by selling traditional deep-filled doughnuts, made fresh every day and delivered to people around London by bicycle.

As the second wave of lockdowns came in and with Christmas fast approaching, Poster Bakes launched their mail order mince pie kits, which could be delivered to people all over the UK to spread some cheer and festive magic in the run up to Christmas.

The social enterprise went on to launch deliciously-spiced hot cross bun baking kits in the run up to Easter and now offer their brand new range of vegan pick and mix! You can select your own or choose from one of their mouth-watering mixes.

All profits made through Poster Bakes go directly towards continuing The Connection’s work, helping thousands of people each year to move away from the streets. They will also be running kitchen classes for people experiencing homelessness to help give them the tools and knowledge to cook and make nutritious food decisions when they become housed.

The website is currently open for pick and mix orders that can be shipped around the UK, and Poster Bakes have plans to launch some delicious new baking kits within the next few months. If you would like to find out any more information about the work of The Connection, click here.

You can also follow Poster Bakes on Instagram.

Vegans raising funds for Mexico

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One of the most important parts of being a vegan activist is understanding that we shouldn’t limit our acts of compassion to simply caring for non-human animals.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that all we need to do in order to be fabulous is to stop eating animals, raise money for animals, and encourage other people to stop eating animals.

In reality, there is so much more we should be doing to challenge oppression.

If we want to fight oppression, we should also look to redress disadvantage amongst humans.

Yes. We should eat, drink and live like we give a shit. (shameless book plus)

In line with this way of thinking, we use our fabulous karaoke sessions at Vegan Beer Fest UK events to raise money for a charity in Mexico City called Isla Urbana. This charity builds sustainable water catchment systems for households, schools, communities, and businesses in Mexico.

Many, many people live without access to safe water but of course we all understand that clean water is a basic human right, so I feel it is crucial we support the work of Isla Urbana.

We asked the audience and performers at our charioke (charity + karaoke) session to donate whatever coins they had towards our Isla Urbana drive and I’m thrilled to say we raised £180 for the charity.

We will also be collecting at Vegan Beer Fest UK 2018  events in Coventry, Sheffield, and Glasgow. You can book tickets for those events online here.

If you are not able to get along to our events but would like to support the work of Isla Urbana, donate online here and follow the charity on Instagram.

 

Mushroom masterclass

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There is a mushroom masterclass coming up this Saturday May 12, 2018 at Made in Hackney and if you can afford to attend, it looks like it will be extremely informative and useful.

“We will share our passion and knowledge of cooking and growing gourmet mushrooms, as well as practical tips and recipes, so that you can bring delicious umami flavours to your meals”

Mark Breen, Professional Chef & Cookery Tutor & César Hernán Rizzo Gómez, Urban Grower & Cook

The class will include:

  • How to cook different types of gourmet mushrooms to intensify their unique flavours and textures
  • How to bring out the delicious ‘umami’ flavour of mushrooms
  • How to grow gourmet mushrooms from used coffee grounds
  • How to store your mushrooms correctly to get the best from them
  • Various cooking techniques which will preserve the nutritional properties of mushrooms
  • Tasty ‘tried and tested’ recipes using mushrooms as a starter, a main or a side dish
  • A delicious organic plant based lunch and recipes to take home

César is an urban farmer and accomplished cook. He is the founder of ‘Article Number 25’, an Urban Farming Company aiming to change the food system, which grows different varieties of mushrooms from used coffee grounds and converts unused spaces into farms.

Mark is a professional chef and cookery tutor, working with various cookery schools across the capital. He also runs Seasonal Kitchen, a company offering unique dining experiences and private chef services.

Fee*: £70 (£55** Concession) includes a delicious organic plant based meal

  • This fee is used to fund the programme of free courses to vulnerable and low-income community groups. By attending a Made In Hackney masterclass you get a great day of learning AND you’re providing the charity with essential funds for them to continue their work with vulnerable community groups.

** Concessionary rate available for students, pensioners, unemployed and low waged

Click here to book a spot at this mushroom masterclass now! At the time of posting, their were only 8 spaces remaining.

Helping Mexico

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As you probably know, I have a strong connection to Mexico City. Some of the people I love most in the world are there and I live in the city for 6 months of each year.

I’ve been deeply worried about the devastating earthquake that affected the people of Mexico City last week and have felt helpless in London with no chance of being on the ground to help.

As a response, I have asked my publisher Nourish Books to help me raise money for a special charity based in Mexico City.

Isla Urbana works hard to install and maintain clean water infrastructure for some of the city’s most vulnerable people. Each water tank and system they install costs money but has the ability to give water security to an entire household and sometimes local schools.

Between Sunday September 24 and Saturday September 30, 2017, Nourish Books will kindly donate £1 to Isla Urbana for every copy of my book ‘Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t’ that is pre-ordered via Amazon.

Use this link to pre-order the book: http://tinyurl.com/CDMXwater and please share this post where you can. If you prefer to donate directly to the charity, you can do that here: http://islaurbana.org/english/

Help animals

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If this time of year has you desperate to throw cash away in large quantities, consider throwing some in the direction of Foal Farm Animal Rescue Centre in Kent.

Foal Farm takes in all manner of rescued animals, giving them much-needed care, food and shelter before finding them new homes or keeping them at the sanctuary for life.

The centre is completely dependent on donations to help care for horses, dogs, ducks, goats, sheep, cats, cows and maybe a few other animals I’ve overlooked.

There are a few ways you can help Foal Farm this week:

  • Attend my Vegan Christmas Market and throw some cash into the collection bucket situated at the Rupert’s Street food van (photo below shows the van, as well as rescued goat Kendrick enjoying his new home)
  • Donate money via the Foal Farm website
  • Share this blog post or links to the Foal Farm website on social media to help spread the word

Do something kind for animals right now!

I’d love to read your comments below if you managed to send some cash their way.