Kitchen Equipment Redistribution in Greater Manchester and Beyond

Once again, this year, members of the Level Club assisted the social enterprise Cracking Good Food on their Kitchen Kit Call Out. Their redistribution events help charities from women’s hostels, refugee groups, care leavers, homeless help, food banks, and more, in a time when purchasing kitchen equipment to cook essential meals for families and the community is harder than ever. In 2023, the Level Club helped to move 1.5 tonnes of kitchen equipment from their stores over to the venue for the Kitchen Kit Redistribution event and we didn’t want to let them down this year either. In June, myself and Bro. Hiten Patel drove around the Greater Manchester area delivering bins to organisations that allow people to donate kitchen equipment for the redistribution event. It was great to see businesses around the area getting behind such a great cause.

Then, in July, after the bins were collected, we again assisted with moving over a tonne of donations from Manchester stores to the event venue at UA92 University campus in Stretford, with the assistance of WBro. Craig Pattison and his van, and the additional muscle of Bro. Andy Robson. The venue was setup and sorted to await the representatives of various charity organisations the following day.

The day of the redistribution event itself was a great success, with the BBC & Mayor of Trafford in attendance to see the great work being done and the impact it had. Myself, Bro Andy Robson, Bro. Papa Andoh, and Bro. Tim Poole all rolled up our sleeves and helped with loading cars and vans with collected donations throughout the day, before returning the events equipment to stores at the end of the day.

It was a pleasure to see such an event from beginning to end and to be part of that process, giving time to a great cause and seeing the impact of the event and the donations received by charities. Those I spoke to couldn’t have been more grateful for the equipment they collected and the smiles and joy on their faces was contagious. Service is one of the guiding principles of Freemasonry and, whilst it is commendable to provide financial support to charity, giving our time freely and seeing the tangible impact that can make in society