[Liz] Our final speaker today is Rachel, who's from both The Cherry Tree Project, which supports young people in Romiley, and also the Stockport Food Network. Thanks, Rachel. Hi, I'm Rachel Bresnahan. I don't like doing stuff like this. I'm not quite sure how Liz managed to talk me into it, but she did, so here I am, so bear with me. The Cherry Tree Project is a youth organisation in Romiley. I'm just going to... Okay, that's us. So we're in Romiley, we're in Cherry Tree, we're on an estate living in quite an affluent area, so sometimes we felt a little bit forgotten. And so that's why the Cherry Tree Project was born. Originally, we were a youth group. We ran once a week, and then along came COVID and scuppered our plans. And so we had to get a bit more creative. Through lockdown, we were doing the cooking projects by Facebook, so we did a Facebook Live, people copied at home. We got funding for 15 families and next thing we knew, we had 150 families every single week. I looked before to work out the exact numbers just so I can tell you. But it was 11,160 meals that were provided in 24 weeks. I'm genuinely have no idea how, to be honest with you. We also did food parcels, 150 food parcels a week. And I know how we did that, all our older volunteers were unable to step up because they were at home and they were locking down. So instead we had a band of teenagers that came along and stepped in and did the work for us. And they were incredible. They got everything done and they did these food parcels every week. They packaged them, they distributed them, and they're still involved in the project today in different ways, they're still there and still involved. So prior to lockdown, we had a youth club called Project Lab, and the whole point behind that was that young people got to create their own projects. And that's where a lot of these ideas have come from. That's why people say to me "Oh you're so creative". I do none of it. I just facilitate their ideas. So lockdown ended. And then in April 2021 we opened our hub, so that's what's pictured in the background. So my awesome team sat in the middle of it. We open the building the council gave it to us very generously and have recently lent us the keys to the building next door, which is our food hub as well. And we started to run groups, and that brings us to where we are today. We're now open four nights a week, it will be five nights a week from September. We run the Lab Project in school holidays, and so we're able to offer places to 40 kids a day. We do about 100 meals a week. We run a group with Age UK called Activities, so we have a group of elderly people who come along and do chair based exercises and gossip about whatever they've done throughout the week. It's an amazing group, and if anyone wants to ever link in or visit, come along, they would love to meet you. We run two food hubs a week, so we offer food parcels out, people order it online, leave a voicemail or stick their head in, and the food is there waiting for them. But more importantly, we also have surplus which is donated through local organisations and that can be shared any day. We are fortunate to be part of the Stockport Food Network so we've been a member of the network since it first started. There is a lot of talk going on in lockdown but then it's a group of organisations that just have a heart for feeding people and making sure that we're all doing what we can to help support this community. And then around six months ago, I was given the opportunity to be part of facilitating that and we're really trying to do more and get excited about it. And so that's us. The projects that we've been doing with the Food Network were, To Share the Surplus has been one of the projects were really trying to work together better. I'm a massive believe between us would probably have enough. But we just don't always claim that with others. So if we work out how to share properly and how to work with each other when we make an effort to get to know each other better, then there's probably enough there for everyone. We just need to make sure that we're sharing it. Another project that we've done is the Stockport Food Drive. So organisations collected food and then shared it with food provisions. So an example of that was a half group that was run by Pi Education in Marple collected food and then that went to Marple Food Pantry. Um which is exactly how it should work communities working and helping communities where the opportunities are there. And we've got a more recent project at the moment which is going to be a Stockport Saving Summer. We're really hoping to get a little bit of momentum with it. So do please look out for us on social media under the Stockport Food Network. The idea behind this is recently we were offered an interesting opportunity. These seem to pop up myself and Inga . Myself and Inga were offered the opportunity to go on to BBC Morning Live. Um, and look at the money maximisation project where we would contact our energy providers and ask them for a cheaper deal. You weren't allowed to switch providers and you have to actually do it yourself, which we did, um and not only did we both save money, but so did the other nine people who were part of the project. I personally save £700 a year. But the idea is that if we can roll out those tips and help our local community save money on their monthly bills, then they won't. They won't need our provisions. And so it's all about sustainability. How can we support other people and being able to support themselves, which is a massive part of what we do. So if you've not come across the Food Network before, please do follow it on social media. And if you provide free meals, um, food parcels or know anyone that does get them to link in and be part of the network, because the bigger the better, you know, we can work better together when there's more of us there and involved. So what can you do? Well, this is a difficult one for me because we've got some really smart people up here talking about really great solutions. Um, and I'm more of a give an cereal bar for a kid kind of person, but there we go. So what can we do personally We can recycle, we can reuse, we can thrift, we can share. We can link into organisations that do things well. So more recently I've been linking in with Olio and sharing food through them, Neighbourly. Supporting our local food banks by making donations rather than throwing away those foods at the back of the cupboards that we don't want to eat. Linking into thrift sites or Freecycle, we can support each other. So, like I said, following the Stockport Food Network, listen to the people that we've heard today and follow them. Ask each other as you're leaving. Where are you from? Find each other on social media. Work out what can we do. Make how can I support you? A normal question because these things are really important to all of us. So why not get to know each other better and see what we can do to help each other out? And then the next part was a bit of a difficult one, because I thought, what do I bring to the table here , when Liz asked me to stand here, I was really nervous. Not just because I avoid people normally , but also because I wasn't quite sure what I bring to mix. And so I started to Google statistics of how reducing food waste helps the climate. But then I realised that you can google it, so there's no point me sharing them with you. And also we've got people like Adrian in the room ask him, and he seems to know loads. So that would be a much better option, so thought, what do I bring to the table? And I thought, probably the best thing I can bring. This is my world. So these kids on the screen, that's my will and the reason why it is because two years ago there was a problem. It was on my heart and there's something that I could do about it. And when I did, I created this life for myself. I absolutely love what I do. I don't work anymore like I do something I love, and then they pay me for it, it can pay bills, it's amazing. You should all try it. And so that's my suggestion for you lot today, think about what you've heard today. Think about all the different ideas that have been shared. Have a look through the recording if you missed some bits, because there was a lot going on and work out what you've heard, what's on your heart? What's inspired you most. Which organisation you want to work with. So I heard Chris speak and thought, Wow, my kids would absolutely love to come and work with you. That just looks amazing. And when Ali was speaking before, I thought my kids would just get behind that so much, it's such an exciting project. What did you feel that about? Because if we all walk away today and follow what's in our heart, not only do you get to live an amazing life because you're doing what you love, but we get to make a difference to each other. Thanks for having me. you.