Tackling Food Insecurity Through New National Lottery Funded Project

Cyrenians is delighted to announce that our Flavour and Haver Cook School will benefit from a major new funding stream as part of Extended Table — a national project using food to bring people together, tackle isolation, and build community resilience.

Thanks to National Lottery players, Extended Table, a UK-wide partnership led by NOW Group in collaboration with Real Farming Trust, Cyrenians, Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, Organiclea & Hornbeam, has received £4.8 million over five years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the UK’s largest community funder.

The UK Fund is one of the National Lottery Community Fund’s first major commitments under its new strategy, It starts with community. The programme supports projects that help communities come together – one of the funder’s four key missions.

Through Extended Table, Cyrenians will be delivering community food initiatives that promote wellbeing by connecting people through food. The project aims to reduce loneliness, boost confidence, and empower people to shape positive change within their communities.

This investment will allow us to expand our work promoting social eating and food education as powerful tools for connection and change. We’ll be increasing the number of social eating spaces available for people on low incomes across Edinburgh — creating opportunities for people to come together around good, nutritious food.

Our Cook School will offer free places on our popular masterclasses and supper clubs to those we support, ensuring that everyone – regardless of income – can access great food and company. We’ll also collaborate with other third-sector organisations across the city to help them develop their own community-led eating spaces, embedding social eating into local life.

Our vision is simple: access to good food and the joy of eating with others should be the norm, not the exception. By reframing how communities respond to food insecurity, we want to move beyond emergency food provision and towards sustainable, dignity-based models that tackle not only hunger, but also loneliness, isolation, and lack of community cohesion.

Alongside this, we’ll be delivering practical, inclusive initiatives such as “Chop & Chat” sessions, where participants prepare dehydrated vegetable packs – like healthy “pot noodle” kits – for people living in temporary accommodation with limited cooking facilities. We’ll also run slow cooker classes, helping people to prepare healthy meals at low cost while reducing energy use.

This project is also a powerful example of Cyrenians’ public health approach to homelessness prevention — addressing the root causes of crisis long before someone reaches the point of losing their home. Food is a universal connector and an early intervention tool; when people have access to nutritious meals, social connection, and a sense of belonging, they are more likely to stay well, supported, and stable.

Speaking about the project, Sue O’Neill Berest, Cyrenians Good Food Manager said:

“This funding represents an exciting step forward for Cyrenians Cook School and for community food projects across the UK. Food brings people together – it breaks down barriers, builds connection and restores dignity. Through Extended Table, we’ll continue to make social eating part of everyday life in our city, helping people feel nourished, supported and included.

It is my hope that this project will help shape change, not only in the way we deal with food insecurity at a community level, but also at a national level. Too often housing insecurity goes hand in hand with poor access to food – whether that’s places to store and prepare food, or as a result of rising costs and money worries.”

Cyrenians is proud to stand alongside our Extended Table partners, united by the belief that food has the power to change lives and build stronger, fairer communities.