## **Annual Report and Accounts** 

**For the year ended 31[st] December 2021** 

**Registered Charity No 1149052** 



## **Account Report 2021** 

## **Administrative Information** 

Christian Kitchen is charity, which has its registered address at 65 Blackhorse Road, Walthamstow, London, E17 7AS. Christian Kitchen is a registered charity (No. 1149052) Trustees who served during the year 2020, were as follows: Chair: Norman Coe Secretary: Andrew Lock Treasurer: Michael Henry Other Trustees: Paul Dowling David Williams Kate Ford Jennifer Ford Stephen Kearns Paige Singh Guy Lester (Resigned 4[th] September 2022) Mumtaz Khalick Rosida Simrick (appointed 6[th] January 2021) 

**Banker: Independent Examiner** TSB Bank plc Waqas Hussain 



## **Structure, Governance and Management** 

Christian Kitchen is governed by a Trust Deed (executed 21[st] January 2012) which is based on the Charity Commission Model Trust Deed, relevant details for which can be obtained from its website under guidance for Choosing and Preparing a Governing Document (CC22). 

## **Objectives and Activities** 

The key objective of Christian Kitchen is the relief of financial hardship among people living or working in Waltham Forest by providing such persons with goods or services, which they could not otherwise afford through lack of means. Against that background its primary activities involve the provision of food to homeless and marginalised people in Walthamstow, London E17.  This is achieved through the use of a bespoke electric “soup” van, where volunteer workers serve meals & drinks safely seven-days a week, fifty two-weeks a year. 

## **Users of the Service** 

This can vary depending on the time of year or weather conditions although user numbers will fluctuate between 45 and 70 individuals as a typical daily average throughout any given year. 

## **Achievement & Performance** 

The Trustees have complied with the duty to have due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission. 

The next sections (below) report on the achievements and performance of the charity in various areas of our work. 



## **Christian Kitchen - an introduction** 

## **Who are we ?** 

As indicated above Christian Kitchen is a charity, based in the London borough of Waltham Forest that provides hot meals every night of the week to the homeless people of Walthamstow. 

The charity is run by a team of Trustees, some of who have been volunteering or over 20 years. 

Each night, the van is operated by small teams of volunteers, some from church groups and others from people from the local area, who all want to give back and help those that need it. 

## **What do we do ?** 

We have been feeding homeless people for over 25-years. 

The charity was created by a local woman originally, who wanted to help people on her “doorstep” that were hungry and homeless. 

Christian Kitchen’s values and operations remain unchanged largely since its establishment (as “Christian Kitchen Word of Life Ministry” initially) but now with the addition of a fully equipped catering van and an online presence via a bespoke website and social media pages. 



## **Trustees’ Commentary** 

2021 was a year of further challenges for Christian Kitchen. The year was once again, like 2020, dominated by COVID and how we could best respond to the pandemic to offer as a high a quality service as possible to our users. 

Having made the decision in 2020 that we would continue to offer a nightly service to our users, we focused on providing a hot, nutritious meal each night of the year in an environment that was as safe as possible for both our users and our volunteers. 

To this end we continued to procure personal protective equipment such as masks, aprons, visors and gloves for our volunteers. We introduced a more rigorous cleaning and sanitary regime for the kitchen where our food is prepared and on the van itself. We have now been providing food in foil containers to our users since the COVID lockdown period started in March 2020. 

In order to meet guidelines issued by the government to organisations working with homeless people we have been serving meals in take away containers, encouraging our users to disperse as quickly as possible, once they received their food. This contrasts greatly to the pre-COVID operating model where we would provide tables and benches for our users to sit down and eat their meal adjacent to the van from which we had served the food. 

One of the most unfortunate consequences of COVID for Christian Kitchen has been the loss of the social interaction between our users which a ‘sit down’ meal afforded and also the reduction of interaction between volunteers and users, which has been a key feature of our service over the years. Many of our users lead quite solitary lives and, in pre-COVID days, welcomed the opportunity to socialise with others whilst eating the ’sit down’ meal that Christian Kitchen provided. We have, temporarily, lost this aspect of our service but hope to reintroduce it once COVID restrictions are lifted. 

An initial consequence of COVID was a marked increase in the number of people who were presenting themselves at the van each night for a meal, including people who had lost both their accommodation and employment directly as a result of COVID. 

As we moved into 2021 the numbers of people whom we were serving plateaued, mainly because the local authority, London Borough of Waltham Forest (LBWF), provided emergency accommodation during the Covid lockdown period for people who had previously been street homeless and also as a result of the re-opening of Forest Churches Emergency Night Shelter in late 2021. 

We were pleased to work in partnership with LBWF, by providing meals to the people, whom they were temporarily accommodating in local hotels. 

In addition to providing a nightly meal to street homeless people, we seek to create and strengthen links with other local partnership organisations who work with marginalised people. We try to achieve this by signposting our users to local Social Services and Housing officers and the local Forest Churches Emergency Night Shelter. 

We also run joint sessions with local NHS providers to offer chest x-rays to our users. 

Throughout 2021 we have continued to use the kitchen at St Michael’s and All Angels church hall, Palmerston Road, to prepare and store our food and we are very grateful to the church for their continued support. 

Our electric van is proving to be far more practical than the previous diesel van. It is popular among our volunteer drivers. It is, of course, more environmentally friendly, but being smaller, it is easier to manoeuvre in the narrow local streets, while still being large enough to collect food donations from supermarkets, schools, places of worship etc. Being a volunteer organisation we are very dependent on monetary donations and donations in kind. During 2021 we have received generous donations from National Lottery, Crisis, London Community Foundation, the Ford Trust in addition to generous donations from local places of worship, schools, colleges, businesses, shops and individuals. 

We are also extremely appreciative of the continuing on-going support that we receive on an annual basis from Walthamstow and Chingford Almshouse Charity which has been vital for our day to day operation – procurement of take away food containers, cutlery etc. This support is particularly important to us, as it provides a solid foundation for our operation, without which we could not operate on a daily basis. 

During 2021 we have continued to strengthen our links with St James’ Big Local, who have not only supported us financially but also produced a film on local voluntary organisations, which included a section on Christian Kitchen, which we hope to use for future promotional purposes. 

Christian Kitchen is an exclusively volunteer project. We could not achieve anything without the time, expertise and commitment of our volunteers, who support our work in many different ways - preparing & cooking food, driving the van, serving food from the van, cleaning, repairing and maintaining the van, collecting food from local schools, places of worship and supermarkets. Our volunteers come from local churches, mosques, temples and synagogues and we have many volunteers who have no religious beliefs. 



During 2021 Christian Kitchen volunteers showed incredible dedication to the project, by continuing to ensure that the van went out every single night of the year to serve the most vulnerable and marginalised members of our local community throughout the most testing of times. 

Our final thanks go to our brilliant volunteers, who give so generously of their time and expertise. We have approximately 120 active volunteers of different ages, backgrounds and skills. Their commitment to Christian Kitchen has been unwavering during this most challenging of years. We would be nothing or achieve nothing without them. 

## **Steve Kearns** 

## **For and on Behalf of the Trustees of Christian Kitchen** 



## **CHRISTIAN KITCHEN FUNDRAISING REPORT - 2022** 

In order to operate efficiently Christian Kitchen _(CK)_ continues to rely heavily on external sources of funding – both to fund capital expenditure but also, crucially, to provide ongoing revenue expenditure to fund day to day running costs. Major funding received is outlined below; 

- Walthamstow and Chingford Almshouses charity supports CK by donating up to £10,000 per year to fund everyday running costs such food procurement, cutlery, food containers etc. This year the funding has been increased by a further £5,000 to cover additional waste removal costs that we have incurred. 

- St James’ Big Local have given us two one-off grants totalling £15,000 to fund operating costs and additional costs arising from operating during the COVID period. 

- Near Neighbours project have given us two grants of up to £10,000 to fund training and outreach development work. 

- Donations from individuals, schools, businesses and places of worship remain an important part of our income stream. 

- Donations in kind from local supermarkets, notably Sainsburys in Walthamstow and Waitrose in Buckhurst Hill, are also a key element of day to day operation. 

## **FUNDING RECEIVED IN 2020 and 2021** 

- Our new electric van was funded from grants received from Albert Gubay Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation. These totalled £40,000. 

- We also received COVID related funding in 2020 and 2021 from Crisis, London Community Foundation and Bridge House Estates towards COVID related expenditure such as procurement of PPE and cleaning materials. These grants totalled approximately £17,000, part of which has also been used to help fund our recent kitchen refurbishment. 

In order to continue to operate 365 nights a year CK needs to generate significant sums of money. Our fundraising programme tries to reflect this vital facet of our operation. 

16 June 2022 

Steve Kearns Trustee 



## **Financial Review** 

Christian Kitchen is an unincorporated charity where due to the fact its income threshold is below £250k, it has adopted a “Receipts & Payments” accounting approach to preparation its accounts over recent years and for the period under review. 

In this respect, the methodology chosen (“Receipts & Payments”), requires the recording of cash movements only; receipts and payments accounts are statements that summarise the movement of cash into and out of the charity during the financial year. In this context ‘cash’ includes cash equivalents, for example, bank and building society current and other cash accounts into which money is banked or used to make payments. 

## **Accounting Basis** 

Christian Kitchen has opted to prepare its accounts under the receipts and payments basis. 

## **Report and Accounts** 

If gross income is less than £25k per annum, there is no requirement to submit formal accounts to the Charity Commission although the annual return still needs to be filed.  In 2017, the charity’s income exceeded this threshold for the first time (after it received a significant legacy) and as a result there was need to submit accounts, which the Trustees consider was a best practice irrespective of the income amount (below £25k in 2018), and this protocol has been continued alongside the necessity to keep proper accounting records.  In this reporting period (2021), income exceeded the £25k threshold. 

An Independent Examination is a form of external overview to confirm whether there are any issues of material financial areas of concern and the Trustees have concluded & consider this review of the accounts is appropriate (see below). 

## **Financial Review** - Period 2021 (1st January to 31st December) 

Underlying unrestricted income of £24,005 represented a 25% decline year-on-year (2020: £32,132) as macroeconomic conditions shifted adversely as a direct result of the COVID-19 global pandemic.  Indeed, income was underpinned by the significant support the charity received from ‘Walthamstow & Chingford Almshouse Charity’, in particular (£8,608), without which general income was £15,400 _approximately_ .  Beyond this underlying income flows were via our JustGiving platform (£6,279 vs. £11,313 received in 2020) alongside core local partners - see below. 

Total income was boosted by grant receipts (restricted monies) of £17,500 (£112,000 in 2020) from local funding bodies. 

Christian Kitchen continued to received material support (both financial / non-financial) from a range of Christian churches & other local organisations and in this respect, it would like to express its thanks for the on-going contribution provided, to: Blackhorse Road Baptist Church, St Mary’s Church, Woodford Baptist Church, Destiny Community Services, Cornerstone Leyton, Chingford Mount Baptist Church, Our Lady of the Rosary and St Patrick’s, Parish of Christ the King, Gateway Church, Highams Park Baptist, The Faith and Belief Forum, Our Lady & St George. 

Underlying operating expenditure reduced 4.6% to £33,805 (£35,427), which strips-out costs associated with the purchase of a new van during 2020; this was deemed a necessary expenditure item in order to comply with UK emission regulations. 

As noted previously, the trustees are seeking to take relevant actions to reposition the charity’s operational costs to ensure it functions sustainably.  In this respect, it is evident a funding gap exists between underlying income (£24,005) and the charity’s expenditure (£33,805) and as such, cost control improvements remains a key priority for the trustees given the unique challenges this charity alongside others face as new operating practices / ways of working influence future services. 

Cash resources totalled £133,719 (at 31[st] December’21) up from £126,019 (prior year); £116,026 being restricted. 

## **COVID-19** 

In March’20 the charity took steps (in line with HM Government’s ‘health & safety’ advice) to modify its operations, which involved provision of meals via sealed containers, where all volunteers were using Personal Protective Equipment (‘PPE’). 

Global pandemic has had a material impact on unrestricted income but the charity secured significant COVID-19 funding support through a variety of channels, which will underpin its operations near-term (see ‘Restricted’ cash balance above). 



It is self-evident the outlook will continue to prove challenging but despite the uncertainty, the Trustees are committed to ensuring that Christian Kitchen is able to continue to provide support to vulnerable individuals across our local community. 

Michael Henry, Hon. Treasurer 

## **Approval** 

This report was approved by the Treasurer on behalf of the Trustees following a meeting of the Trustees (on 12[th] October 2022) and following receipt of the certification from the Independent Examiner (dated 8[th] August 2022). 

Report & Account was signed on behalf of Christian Kitchen by Michael Henry, Hon Treasurer Christian Kitchen. 



## **Independent examiner’s report to the Trustees of Christian Kitchen (Charity no. 1149052)** 

I report to the Trustees on my examination of the accounts of Christian Kitchen (“the Charity”) for the year ended 31[st] December 2021. 

## **Responsibilities and basis of report** 

As the Trustees of the Charity, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). 

I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. 

## **Independent examiner’s statement** 

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: 

- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act; or 

- the accounts do not accord with the accounting records. 

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. 


Name: Waqas Hussain FCCA Address: 10 Knebworth Avenue, Walthamstow, E17 5AJ Date: 18/08/2022 

Signed: 





|**Christian Kitchen**|**Christian Kitchen**|**Christian Kitchen**|**No. 1149052**|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Receipts andpayments accounts**|||||
|**For the period**<br>**from**|1st January 2021|**To**|31st December 2021||



## **Section A Receipts and payments** 

|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest      £**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest      £**|**Restricted funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Restricted funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Last year (2020)**<br>**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|<br>Just Giving- Donations|**6,279**||**-**||**-**||**6,279**|**11,313**|
|Regular Deposits - StandingOrders|**1,846**||**-**||**-**||**1,846**|**1,870**|
|Large Individual Deposits(>£250)|**1,900**||**-**||**-**||**1,900**|**-**|
|EasyFundRaising|**62**||**-**||**-**||**62**|**28**|
|Charities Aid Foundation|**269**||**-**||**-**||**269**|**8,883**|
|General Deposits|**5,040**||**-**||**-**||**5,040**|**9,939**|
|Walthamstow & Chingford Almshouse Charity|**8,608**||**-**||**-**||**8,608**|**-**|
|National Lottery- CommunityFund|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**24,760**|
|Crisis UK|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**5,000**|
|London CommunityFoundation|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**24,800**|
|Avye Leventis|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**8,000**|
|Crest Waltham Forest - St James’ BigLocal|**-**||**10,000**||**-**||**10,000**|**738**|
|RWHA CharityFund|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**2,000**|
|Cityof London|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**6,750**|
|Albert GubayFoundation|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**30,000**|
|Garfield Weston Foundation|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**10,000**|
|Asset Sale Proceeds(Old Van)|||**-**||**-**||**-**|**100**|
|LBWF(Winter Appeal)|||**7,500**||**-**||**7,500**|**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**24,005**||**17,500**||**-**||**41,505**|**144,181**|
||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**<br>**(see table).**|||||||||
|<br>**Bank (at 1st January 2021)**|**27,493**||||||**126,019**|**40,059**|
||**-**||||||**-**|**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**27,493**||||||**126,019**|**40,059**|
|**_Total receipts_**<br>**A3 Payments**|||||||||
||||||||**167,525**|**184,240**|
||||||||||
|<br>Kitchen Services|**7,811**||**-**||**-**||**7,811**|**8,280**|
|Vehicle Insurance|**4,480**||**-**||**-**||**4,480**|**5,325**|
|OperatingEquipment Costs|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**-**|
|General OperatingExpenses|**18,449**||**-**||**-**||**18,449**|**14,307**|
|Van / Motor Maintenance Expenses|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**4,172**|
|Rental Expenditure|**2,850**||**-**||**-**||**2,850**|**2,400**|
|Miscellaneous costs|**216**||**-**||**-**||**216**|**216**|
|Gift - Norman P Coe|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**-**|
|Crest Waltham Forest - St James’ BigLocal|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**727**|
|Albert GubayFoundation("New" Van)|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**22,794**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**33,805**||**-**||**-**||**33,805**|**58,221**|
||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**<br>**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||
||**-**||||||**-**||
||**-**||||||**-**||
|**_Sub total_**|**-**||||||**-**|**-**|
|CCXX R1 accounts (SS)<br>**_Total payments_**<br>**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**<br>**A5 Transfers between funds**<br>**A6 Cash funds last year end**<br>**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||||
||||||||**33,805**|**58,221**|
||||||||||
||**17,693**||||||**133,719**|**126,019**|
||**-**||||||**-**|**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|**-**|
||**17,693**||||||**133,719**|12/10/2022<br>**126,019**|





## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** 

|CCXX R2 accounts (SS)<br>**Categories**<br>Signed by one or two trustees on<br>behalf of all the trustees<br>**B5 Liabilities**<br>**B3 Investment assets**<br>**B2 Other monetary assets**<br>**B4 Assets retained for the**<br>**charity’s own use**<br>**B1 Cash funds**|2<br>**Details**<br>**Details**<br>**_Total cash funds_**<br>(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))<br>Closing Balance at 31st December 2021<br>**Details**<br>**Details**<br>Nissan ENV200 Acenta Rapid Plus Voltia XL<br>**Details**<br>Signature|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Restricted funds**<br>**to nearest £**|<br>**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**17,693**||**116,026**|**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|**-**|
|||**17,693**||**116,026**|**-**|
|||||OK|OK|
|||||**Restricted funds**<br>**to nearest £**|<br>**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**Cost (optional)**|**Current value**<br>**(optional)**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**Cost (optional)**|**Current value**<br>**(optional)**|
|||||**22,794**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**-**|**-**|
|||||**Amount due**<br>**(optional)**|**When due**<br>**(optional)**|
|||||**-**||
|||||**-**||
|||||**-**||
|||||**-**||
|||||**-**||
||||||Date of approval|
|||Michael Henry|||12thOctober 2022|
|||12/10/2022||||



CCXX R2 accounts (SS)