Founder Iolanda’s Thoughts

Iolanda’s Thoughts Dear Readers At the start of a gloomy and rainy first week of October here we are reflecting on our achievements and looking forward to the celebrations to mark the end of the year of the year and the festive season. As we speak we are busy packaging our Christmas products ready to be photographed and launched by second week of October. We aim to sell them online by preorder and also at markets and events we will attend from now to December. As a sneak preview there will be our best-selling hamper with a selection of our jams, truffles, biscuits and cheese as well as our tea towel, artwork etc. They will be available to preorder from middle of October. We are very pleased to announce that our Syrian dinner at Pistachio in the Park sold out in two weeks and by popular demand we are now offering another Syrian Feast at Stansted Lodge in November and also a Syrian themed Christmas lunch at Star of Greenwich. We can offer the same at your place of work or for your family festive season celebrations. Please book your Syrian festive meal through our website. I am honoured to be nominated for the Mayor of Lewisham’s Community Award in the Community or faith group/organisation category. The Community Awards scheme was launched in 2017 to champion all those who are going above and beyond for their communities. This could be through helping a neighbour in need, coaching a sports team, running a community choir, giving up their free time to volunteer, performing incredible acts of selflessness, donating food, and more. The council will film me and feature the film on their website promoting our charity. I am also very pleased about the official launch of the book in the UK and America “Silent rebellion,becoming a modern leader” and the good reviews on Amazon. We are hopeful that you will explore this impactful resource. Please share it with those who want to learn more about leadership and more about my struggles and motivation to set Plateful up and keep it going despite all odds. Our partnership with Team Lewis is also continuing with our artwork being exhibited in their new Headquarters on Millbank. We are discussing the details as we speak and will reveal more in the next issue. Our search for a commercial kitchen of our own continues and perhaps you have leads in southeast London we could explore? Our external catering for events and special occasions continues to be popular with the local public and organisations and we are planning to be the caterer in residence at Magdalen Hall in SE1.The hall is well used by the local community for weddings, birthdays, etc without an in-house caterer. Lets hope their kitchen will be fit-for-purpose once refurbished. We will try it out in October. We are working on new menus from Sudan, Chad and Iran to feature in our community dinners and catering in the new year showcasing world flavours by refugee chefs. As usual the best way to be kept up-to-date is through our social media and signing up to our newsletter to be the first to know about our news! A huge thank you to our wonderful volunteer teams who work tirelessly to keep our charity going and keep growing. Truly and honestly you are the lifeblood of Plateful! !A rough calculation estimates the total number of volunteer hours to 150 per week!!
Looking Forward to September!

Dear readers! The summer is slowly giving way to autumn and what an August rich of activities we have had. We started new partnerships with St Magdalen Hall and Pistachio in Fields cafe and as we speak we are busy preparing the different dishes we will offer at Pullens festival this weekend. Looking Forward At St Magdalen Hall we catered for their summer party and at Pistachios in the fields we were given the opportunity to sell our products and display our artwork at their Calais fundraiser. Both events were successful and we met with many new people who have a genuine desire to support our cause. We very much hope for these partnerships to be long-term and fruitful for all. At St Magdalen Hall we are planning to offer unique menus for their birthdays parties and weddings and at Pistachios in the Filed run our first Syrian community dinner in October. We thank Rob, the owner for the opportunity and his great support of our charity. At Pullens we are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase our food offer of traditional dishes from Syria cooked using family recipes and we are honoured to be the only food provider at the festival. September and Beyond We have received a generous donation from Team Lewis marketing Company and I have had the honour to be interviewed and featured in their book” The Silent rebellion, becoming a modern leader” which talks about my journey setting up the Refugee Café and now Plateful café etc. In September the book will be launched and my interview will be available to promote Plateful cafe extensively. Our search for a commercial Kitchen continues but not with much luck as what we have been offered is either domestic, too far, without storage etc. Since leaving Parkside Community Centre we have been fortunate to receive many commissions for large catering events at universities and also corporates and it has been very challenging to cook from a domestic kitchen. We continue to grow without a commercial kitchen to grow in! You might know of a kitchen in your area available at peppercorn rent for our small young charity ? Having a commercial kitchen which we could call our own would make a huge difference and would mean we could train the next cohort of 6 chefs, expand our catering offers branching out to bigger and bigger events and making a huge difference to a bigger group of aspiring chefs in the area. Our beneficiaries greatest aspiration is to work, making a contribution to the local economy and society rebuilding their lives after years of trauma and upheaval. They do not want to continue to rely on benefits to survive. Being unemployed is demeaning and shameful as all come from professional backgrounds with a great aspiration to continue with their previous job,providing for their families! With your continuing support we will, one day achieve our dream and offer pathways to employment to many more refugees!