Taz Khan MBE, Founder of London’s Community Kitchen, is opening a community café and cookery school at the Grand Union Community Hub and Centre, in partnership with the Grand Union Development Trust charity and St George, part of the Berkeley Group.
The Cordon Bleu chef turned Social Entrepreneur and Acamadecian of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts operates a ‘zero waste, zero hunger’ charitable organisation, where his focus for the last ten years has been on preventing good food from going to landfill and instead distributing it back into communities that find themselves in food insecurity, without reliable access to enough nutritious, affordable, and healthy food.
Each week, London’s Community Kitchen supports circa 25,000 individuals, and intercepts around 75 metric tonnes of food from going to landfill.
Taz’s latest initiative in Wembley will first see him and his team transform the state-of-the-art, multi-purpose Community Hub and Centre at Grand Union into a community café, set to open in early 2025.
The Hub was gifted to the community under the stewardship of the Grand Union Development Trust to oversee its success.
The café will be run by students from the College of North West London in Brent as part of an employment training pathway, serving freshly-prepared, high quality food.
A small cookery school is also set to open at the Hub, providing adults and children with regular workshops on healthy food and nutrition, cooking with new produce, and how to eat well on a budget.
Annually, London’s Community Kitchen delivers community courses to over 2,000 people and seeks to create employment pathways for more than 500 individuals.
Taz Khan MBE, founder of London’s Community Kitchen, said: “We remain focused on battling food insecurity through a zero waste mentality, and work hard to ensure we have the right partners on board to help us support communities across London. We currently run the largest, single day food operation near Alperton on Wembley Road, helping around 1,000 families every single Saturday, many of which join our short-term cookery courses, and so it is important for us to have a permanent base here.”
London’s Community Kitchen will form part of the new all-encompassing canalside community, comprising 3,350 homes, of which 35% are affordable. Grand Union has a mix of one, two and three bedroom homes, as well as a canalside piazza, Anytime Fitness gym, Benham & Reeves estate agents, two-lane bowling alley, entertainment room, residents’ lounge, Co-op, Peapods nursery and Crepes+Coffee café, which operates from the development’s narrowboat PAVO. 10 acres of green space, restaurants, and coffee shops are also part of St George’s wider plans for the new community.
Taz Khan MBE adds: “The investment being made in the Alperton community is very impressive, and its scale means that there is also potential for us to expand as the development evolves. I actually have my eye on some green space that could be used for hosting horticultural courses, and we’re also looking at what we could do in association with the Grand Union Canal. Historically, it used to transport produce into London, which is a really interesting story, and so we may consider launching some workshops focusing on repairing and renovating old barges and narrowboats. It is an exciting time and we look forward to sharing our learnings from the last 12 years with the Grand Union Development Trust and St George to ensure the area’s success.”
Brian Wilson, Chair of the Grand Union Development Trust, comments: “The Grand Union Development Trust, which is a registered charity, was established to engage with and help build stronger communities across Alperton and Brent, whilst also providing spaces where people can come together locally and from further afield to make connections, learn new skills and importantly, socialise and have fun.
“The Grand Union Community Hub plays a key role in making this happen, and forms part of St George’s shared commitment in regenerating and improving the area by merging the existing and new communities. We are now looking forward to building on this with such an important organisation operating this space.
“London’s Community Kitchen is experienced and committed in creating places where people of all ages and backgrounds feel safe, welcomed and included. Taz and his team share our vision for creating a really exciting, community-focused neighbourhood at Grand Union and we can’t wait for them to get started.”
Marcus Blake, Regional Managing Director at St George, adds: “The Grand Union Development Trust has found a really exciting new operator in the London’s Community Kitchen to build on the overall vision for the Hub, bringing together a fantastic community-minded approach. It will benefit not only the Grand Union neighbourhood but also those living and working in the surrounding area.”
Any proceeds made through the Grand Union Hub will be reinvested back into London’s Community Kitchen so it can continue supporting communities across London fight food insecurity.
For commercial enquiries at Grand Union, please visit: Grand Union Commercial Units and for information on homes available contact the sales team on 020 8003 2691 or visit Grand Union.