KAMA Oxford at Project Soup

At seven o’clock on a sunny Sunday evening in May, more than 100 people gathered in the Turl Street Kitchen for an evening of delicious soup, musical entertainment and talks given by those representing local community projects. Project Soup meets three times each year to make a hearty and delicious meal from food that would otherwise be thrown away and to provide opportunities for organisers of local projects to talk about their work. Usually, the attendees of the evening vote on the project they feel most worthy of support and any money made from ticket sales is handed to the winning project. The Project Soup event attended by KAMA on 13th May focused specifically on projects soupporting refugees. The money raised was split equally between the three projects represented rather than any one winner being elected.
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Isabel, along with Flora, Kate and Liz, enjoyed a fantastic meal, listened to live music provided by the Oxford Gargoyles and heard about work that has been done towards re-opening the Florence Park Children’s Centre, which was the winning project at the last Project Soup event. Isabel gave a clear, informative and impassioned speech about the work of KAMA Oxford and we heard from two other projects involved with refugees: Jacari and Refugee Resource. It was clear that a huge amount of invaluable work is being done locally to support refugees but that KAMA is filling a niche in enabling the refugees themselves to give to the community rather than receive from the community which is beneficial in building self-esteem, supporting integration and gaining skills that can be listed on a CV.

Thanks to Project Soup, KAMA ended the evening £123.40 richer (our first ever funds!), had spread word of its existence and work and had received expressions of interest from several people who may want to become more involved. Many congratulations to Isabel for making all the connections necessary to enable KAMA to be represented at Project Soup and for giving such a clear account of the project.