A lovely lady who runs a church foodshare and coffee and craft cafe and “lots of community groups from the Wycliffe Baptist Church. She works tirelessly to support anyone who needs it,” said her nominator for the award.
“Kathryn runs a very busy foodshare, giving up her time to provide free food to families and individuals in need. She also runs a busy coffee and craft group, which provides so many benefits to those who use it.
“I had no idea I would win the award – a couple of friends said ‘come for lunch’ so I did,” said Kathryn.
“But I’m really delighted. “I love that every day at Wycliffe Baptist Church I can change a life, whether it’s through the church foodshare programme Wycliffe Foodshare, through our Coffee and Craft project, or any of the other services we provide – they’re all interlinked.
“People who were children when we first started supporting them, are now bringing their own children along.
“And there are people who thank me because they’ve learnt a new skill.
“For example, there are teaching assistants we put in place who are now teachers.
“We want people to be able to take their own lives forward, so as soon as they are trained, or proficient, or whatever they came to us for help with is sorted, we push them out of the nest.
“I don’t want people to stay with us indefinitely, because it means they’re not growing.
“To me it’s about change – about touching lives.
“Every day I trust God that I’m going to touch a life.
“And every day we see change, every day we make a difference to someone.
“We’re a really small charity, but we reach around 6,000 people.
“Our volunteer programme underpins everything.
“And my team of local volunteers is phenomenal.
“I couldn’t do this without them.
“You could say, I’m the umbrella handle, and my team is the umbrella.
“I hold that handle, and my team members are all the spokes – they make it
happen, and this award is for all of them too..
“It will be put somewhere where they can all enjoy it – but just now, none of them knows about it yet, because I really thought I was just coming for lunch.”
