Hundreds of people in Carlisle enjoyed a free lunch to mark World Kindness Day.
A team based at the Cumberland Building Society’s newly reopened branch on English Street handed out over 300 cups of soup – in the hope that recipients would pay it forward and pass on the kindness to others – while volunteers delivered a further 100 soups to delighted workers at nearby businesses yesterday.
Grant Braddock, a senior engineer at Peacock Precision Services, who was working in the city centre, said: “It’s a nice gift on a cold day, for someone to come up randomly when you’re working hard and get a little boost from them being kind to you. And it’s nice to be able to pass that on afterwards as well.”
Retail supervisor Joseph O’Regan received his soup when a delivery arrived at Specsavers in Castle Street. He said: “The gesture is really kind. It’s definitely put a smile on our faces in the business today.”
Local street cleaner, Brian Parkin was delighted to have a cup of soup to warm him up on a cold day at work.
The Cumberland was highlighting its Kinder Kind of Kitchen initiative, run in partnership with FareShare Lancashire and Cumbria, delivered by Recycling Lives, which supports community food projects to help tackle food poverty.
In June, it produced The Kinder Cookbook, featuring recipes from the food groups it has funded. The use-any-vegetable soup served in Carlisle came from the book and was devised and made by Harraby Community Centre where the Cumberland supports the popular community café.
Harraby Community Centre was also able to give away free soup and iced ginger shortbread due to the support of The Cumberland, as part of the World Kindness Day celebrations.
Gail Sales, the café supervisor who created the recipe, said: “I’m extremely proud. We do this soup on weekly basis for our Monday club so it’s nice that, through the book, more people have been able to try it.
“It’s extremely important to pass on kindness because kindness is what makes the world go round, or it should be anyway!”
Lewis Benson, the Cumberland’s area manager – branches, said: “We’ve been inspired by Harraby Community Centre’s soup to spread kindness by handing over a hot soup on what has been a very cold day.
“The reaction from people has been absolutely amazing, and we have been asking people to pay that kindness forward and be kind in our communities.”
Kinder Kind of Kitchen supported 52 community food groups in its first year serving the equivalent of 577,047 meals and diverting 242 tonnes of food – that would otherwise have gone to waste – to people in need.
Demand is continuing to rise and in the last two months it distributed 66.8 tonnes of food, serving the equivalent of 151,025 meals. It is also distributed 800kg of pet food and a further 800kg of toiletries to those in need.
The Cumberland donates around 1.5 per cent of its profits to good causes. It is providing another £250,000, on top of the £250,000 it pledged last year, to continue Kinder Kind of Kitchen into 2025.
