The Catering Academy
- matthewlewis02
- Mar 3, 2023
- 2 min read
The Catering Academy has been running now for over 17 years. It was initially set up to help our beneficiaries learn kitchen skills, health and hygiene skills and help them towards being more self-sufficient at home. It has had many students who have helped serve over 400,000 meals!
All over the world people meet together to enjoy food together, it is one area where people from different backgrounds and cultures, family and friends spend time together, sharing and welcoming each other, showing hospitality and love through meals. So here at Caring For Life the catering academy has a really important role in showing people they belong, that they are loved and precious.
Our current students are going to be on the project during its most interesting time so far! With plans going ahead for a new centre to be built, with a larger seating area to accommodate the growing number of beneficiaries joining the farm projects and more much-needed facilities things couldn't be more exciting!
However, despite the excitement, this may also be a challenging and daunting time for those on the project. With a range of mobility issues, disruptive home lives and the ever-present mental illness struggles guiding them through the move and build will be hard. One of our students is struggling with anxiety and finds it difficult to leave the house when it gets bad. It’s at times like these we need to be an ear and a shoulder for our beneficiaries, reassuring them that we will be here during their time of absence and when they get back on the project. We are constantly amazed by our beneficiaries and the resilience they show. How amazing it is that they manage to get up to their projects at all, with all the chaos and troubles they are facing in their lives. We are constantly thankful to our Heavenly Father for bringing them up here and giving us the opportunities to show them that we love them and are here for them.
Please do pray for the catering academy team over the next few months, particularly when the building work starts. Pray that it will all go smoothly with minimal disruption for those in our care.
Mark Newsome.