Behind the Scenes with Khepera CIC
Khepera created a Community Cooking and Wellbeing Kitchen in High Wycombe. We talk to their founder Charmaine Fyffe, about how they are improving their local community through teaching plant-based cooking skills.
Visit Khepera’s website here:
www.khepera.org.uk
Why did you choose food as your way of creating positive change and bringing communities together?
Eating is something that we all must do. Throughout my personal health journey I began to realise how important food was for keeping us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy. Eating is a necessity but over the years I found most of us take food for granted – using it as a gap-filler for either emotional or physical hunger, wasting it and not eating mindfully. Yet it gives us all the nutrients we need to survive; it has the power to heal and bring people together!
Being vegan for 12 years, the one question people would ask is what do I eat? I decided to show people by starting Rev’ital – a vegan catering company. With increased interest from non-vegans, I decided to start a community company helping people understand how to manage their health through vegan living and nutritional cooking. Introducing veganism to people through food brings them together for open discussions on veganism, with most people realising that they could easily make and eat meat-free dishes and enjoy them!
Khepera launched a Community Cooking & Wellbeing Kitchen in High Wycombe in partnership with Empower To Cook. How have the local community taken to your sessions being vegan and plant-based? Have they even noticed?
When I started Khepera in 2015, my local business advisor thought that I was being too niche! But our unique and subtle introduction to vegan living has generated a lot of interest from the public. When I arrive at hostels or youth groups and people realise that what we’re going to make is vegan you do see a change in body language, which often makes me laugh. But within a few weeks they arrive at our sessions excited and asking what the meal of the day is going to be!
My aim is to make vegan food accessible, tasty and fun! Introducing new ingredients to adults and young people alike, and showing them how they can save money and their environment, whilst improving their health through food choices, is something that I am extremely passionate about. Many people are surprised at how versatile vegetables are and I often hear comments like “if I could eat like this every day, I would definitely turn vegan.” The best thing about it is, they can!
One of your missions has been to engage with young people to teach them about health, cooking and nutrition. Does what they learn in the kitchen transfer to the other areas of their lives?
The great thing about young people, whether they know it or not, is they have a natural affinity for learning. Showing how they can eat healthy and look after their emotional, mental and physical health at an early age gives them the self-awareness and confidence to implement positive changes in other areas of their lives.
I am passionate about young people using the theoretical aspects of science, mathematics and English in self-care. Showing how we are connected to the earth, how the earth feeds us and we in return feed the earth; how the elements they learn about in chemistry and biology are relevant to our health. Using mathematics and science to create wonderfully tasting dishes shows how we can use what we learn at school in everyday life.
Explaining why balance is important helps to veganise favourite dishes. We don’t demonise foods seen as ‘unhealthy’, we instead show them how to make ‘fake-a-ways’ and discuss and design games to explain nutritional and non-nutritional foods.
We make learning fun and our projects (particularly Foodie Fridays, a partnership with youth workers at Mama Bee) has shown that young people are inspired to cook at home. Following our Masterchef competition and pop-up restaurant, parents have commented that their child now has a day where it’s their turn to cook. Lentil cottage pie and the salads they have learnt to make have been very popular, with some even recommending healthier, vegan takeaways to their families after sampling them at one of our sessions.
Being a social enterprise gives us access to more funding than a private limited company, but being strategic in applying for funding has been key.
You are a registered CIC (Community Interest Company) and have received funding through the National Lottery and the UK Community Foundation. How hard has it been to secure funding as a small organisation – any tips?!
Fortunately, as a small business we have done very well in securing funding, particularly national funding! Being a community entity, a social enterprise, gives us access to more funding than a private limited company. But being focused on the end goal and being strategic in applying for funding has really helped, which I think is key for any business.
Applying for funding is a lengthy procedure that takes a lot of time away from the operational side of the business. But applying for funding which helps the overall mission, and is a stepping stone to sustainability and self-sufficiency, has proven to be our best strategy.
It is always good to research the funders and read their application guidelines thoroughly to make sure that the company aligns with the funding criteria. Also, see what companies and types of projects they have previously funded. Having a funding strategy and planning ahead is a good habit to implement to stay on top of cashflow.
Through ‘Feedback Global’s Green Futures Programme’, Khepera have been able to offer a paid internship for young adults. How important is it that we get young people engaged with ethical and sustainable entrepreneurship?
Through Feedback’s support over the past few years we have been able to pilot several projects. Through their latest programme, young people can see how a small community company operates and see that using their skills and passion they can create their own career path. Young people enjoy helping others, enjoy learning about sustainable food and fashion and the general impact that we have on our environment. They are very open to doing things differently and have a totally different perspective to many adults on the way things are going. We have seen that young people have so much potential and ideas to make a difference – given the opportunity, knowledge and confidence to apply their learning, they have many solutions to the problems we face.
It is important that we share information with young people so that they can make informed decisions, encourage them to think creatively, and listen to their opinions and ideas so that they are inspired to create change and influence their friends and family.
So, what’s next for Khepera?!
This year we are really hoping to make a difference!
We are planning to grow our team and expand our reach in the community. Health is not just a local issue. Showing people how they can become healthier individuals, create healthier karmic lives and surroundings through food, is how we plan to make an impact worldwide via our online platforms.
Locally, we will be running more classes from the community kitchen focusing on living a healthy, vegan lifestyle. Running a variety of events, workshops and sharing more information with the community will help us to create a network – inspiring others to change and transform.
Visit Khepera’s website here:
www.khepera.org.uk
