Taz Khan MBE, Founder of London’s Community Kitchen and former Cordon Bleu chef, has opened a new community-run café and cookery school in Alperton, near Wembley, with proceeds spent helping London’s communities fight food insecurity.
These opening forms part of London Community Kitchen’s ‘zero waste, zero hunger’ charitable initiatives, which, for more than 10 years, have prevented good food from going to landfill. Instead, Taz and his team distributes food to those who find themselves without reliable access to enough nutritious, affordable, and healthy produce.
The Pantry is located at the Grand Union Community Hub, which sits within the 22-acre, all-encompassing canalside community at Grand Union, and has been launched in partnership with the Grand Union Development Trust charity, the United Colleges Group and St George, part of the Berkeley Group.
The café is open 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday, and is run by London’s Community Kitchen and 22 rotating students from the College of Northwest London and City of Westminster College, of United Colleges Group, as part of an employment training pathway and accreditation.
As well as providing teas, soft drinks and barista-style coffee, the students also transform a daily delivery of produce, which would otherwise be thrown away, into delicious food including sandwiches and lunch options for customers. This produce is donated each day from companies including Marks & Spencer, Amazon and the recently opened Grand Union Co-Op store.
Any proceeds made via The Pantry are reinvested into helping communities across London fight food insecurity. Each week, London’s Community Kitchen supports circa 25,000 individuals, and intercepts around 75 metric tonnes of food from going to landfill, all while delivering courses on healthy food and nutrition, cooking with new produce, and how to eat well on a budget to over 2,000 people.
These courses will be at Grand Union and will take place within the Pantry’s kitchen. Further details of these courses will be available due course.
Taz Khan MBE, founder of London’s Community Kitchen, said: “The Grand Union Community Hub in Alperton is set to become a thriving cornerstone for our diverse Brent Community. This essential space welcomes all, offering a safe haven to connect, mingle and grow together. Featuring a community café, it will serve our varied residents while hosting an innovative internship programme with the United Colleges Group students. Here, they’ll gain hands-on hospitality skills, confidence and independence, preparing them for a real-world setting. The hub’s success hinges on collaboration between Brent’s local authority, St George and the voluntary sector – united efforts that empower communities to achieve their dreams. This bold step forward promises a lasting legacy for years to come.”
