Free nosh from community kitchen

Italian bean casserole and a plum dessert were on the menu when Osnosh open the doors on the town’s first community kitchen.

The project has been set up to provide free community meals once a week for anyone who is hungry, struggling or simply in need of company - with food that otherwise would be wasted.

Based at Holy Trinity Church Osnosh has been set up by brothers, Tom and Ben Wilson, in partnership with the Chalk community interest company.

On Thursday the community kitchen opened with chef Ben using a glut of marrows and plums from local gardeners as the basis for his vegetarian menu.

Other ingredients included herbs from a farm in Babbinswood and bread from local supermarkets.

Now working at vegan restaurant, the Fat Rabbit, Ben’s career has included catering on film sets.

“I am used to cooking for large numbers,” he said.

While in university Tom worked with FoodCycle in Sheffield, a community organisation to make meals for those that are at risk of food poverty and/or social isolation using surplus food from local shops and larger food stores.

He was inspired by FoodCycle and other community kitchens opening up across the UK to start a similar project of his own in Oswestry.

The kitchen will open each Thursday from noon .

Tom said: “We would like to say a special thanks to Holy Trinity Church and all its members for being so welcoming and kind and for allowing us to use their space to hold the weekly lunches.”

Ben said there were exciting plans for developing the organisation.

“We hope that in time as our name and goal behind OsNosh becomes better known that we could one day relocate to a space purely dedicated to our organisation. Somewhere which we could then turn it into a business enterprise with a private catering service and an events management team. We want it to be a place where we can actually train and employ people and therefore give back to the community by providing people with an actual income and good food on a larger scale.

“ However the kitchen will always remain a place where anyone and everyone can feel free to come in, share their skills and be part of a new and exciting community enterprise.”

Osnosh will hold regular fundraising events putting on a three course dinner using the same recycled ingredients as used in the weekly kitchen.