Priory's Neighbour's Kitchen want to help people to help themselves in 2023

The Neighbour’s Kitchen, run from the Priory Hotel in Louth by Paul Hugill MBE, provides fresh food to support parents and carers to provide nutritious food in the face of the current fuel and cost of living crisis, while also encouraging families to cook and eat together.

This year’s Christmas Day saw the Neighbour’s Kitchen cook and serve a full festive meal for those in the community who would otherwise have spent Christmas alone or struggle to afford such a meal, and Paul said the feedback from the guests was fantastic.

But Paul said the team’s aim in 2023 is to do more than simply give people food, but to help them to help themselves too.

"The focus is still looking beyond the struggle that people are experiencing and more on the individuals we’re supporting and how we can help them.

Giving people food is a lovely thing to do, but we want to encourage them to think about changes they can make and additional help they can seek.

"We want to feel like we’re part of the community, and help people who are having a hard time.”

Paul said that demand for their food parcels has already increased just days into January, and the demand is expected to increase further as the winter months go on.

"Our biggest challenge is the same that the whole country faces – do we allow the food bank culture to become embedded in our culture and thinking, or do we work alongside each other to build each other up?” Paul added.

"So for us at the Neighbour’s Kitchen, in 2023 the mindset is very much about how do we help people shift away from surviving, to thriving.”

Further details on the Priory’s initiatives will be revealed at a later date.

One way that the public can help the Neighbour’s Kitchen in the meantime is to support the initiative’s Midnight Market, which was set up to help people access support in a less public way and encourages people accessing the service to cook healthy meals for themselves at home.

Paul explained: “The Midnight Market was started last summer when we realised that some people felt embarrassed accessing support, so we started getting up in the middle of the night so that people could access food without others being aware of it.”

People can support the Midnight Market by donating items of fresh fruit and vegetables to the Priory, which those in need can access this service at the Priory’s reception 24 hours a day.

To help raise funds for the families they help, the Priory also hosts monthly comedy nights on the first Wednesday of every month, and coming later this month on January 31 and February 1, comics Sam See, Steffan Alun, and Phil Cooper will be performing, with the evening MCed by the Priory’s own Stephanie Laing.

February 28 and March 1 will see sets from Mike Newall, Louise Atkinson, and Philipp Kostelecky, again MCed by Stephanie Laing.

To see later dates for the Priory’s comedy nights, and to book tickets for January and February’s events, visit their ticket website here.