Beginnings

Place At My Table was born during the outbreak of the pandemic early in 2020. The pandemic has shaken the world and shone a light on areas of inequalities and urgent need. We support men and women with a wide range of barriers to engagement aged 70+.

Developing through a pandemic has certainly shaped our organisation’s mindset for the better, enabling us to draw on the community can-do spirit of these extraordinary times.

Drawing on our rootedness in Sutton, we cultivated this community spirit to establish a small and growing network of partner agencies to deliver: a large mobile hot meal and essentials service; Zoom chair exercise classes; and volunteer telephone support line for isolated BME elders who were struggling during the pandemic.

With the help of local chefs, restaurants, supermarkets, community groups, social care services, Community Action Sutton, and our dedicated volunteers, we were able to roll out a rapid response service to the most vulnerable people.

Through this work we have identified BME communities experiencing significant social and health inequalities and have in a matter of two years rolled out a significant programme of services.

Growing

As we move out of the confinement precautions of the pandemic, we are developing responsive and preventative services and networks to channel resources, capacity, information, and culturally appropriate support to our beneficiaries, unifying the community to work as one to fill the gaps in services.

And we have a super-skilled staff, volunteer, and consultancy team to achieve this.

 

Our Strengths

Our services is underpinned by 4 core values - empowering people; creating stronger networks; volunteering; influencing local policy

Our team is equity-led, coming from African, Caribbean, Indian, and Asian heritages and bringing a range of unique skills, talents, interests, and life experiences. We are also female-led - three of our four management team are women.

Place At My Table is committed to safeguarding all adults (18+) supported by or taking part in our services. We acknowledge and uphold our duty to protect our service users from all forms of harm, abuse and neglect. We are committed to the empowerment of service users to know their rights and will protect their welfare.