We’re calling on the fantastic London business and events community to help us on an important mission that’s close to our hearts. Have you got a minute?
We’re on the hunt for a venue that we can pay to hire that would allow us to deliver a huge first for Team Tactics and the corporate events industry as a whole – we’re looking to scale up our cooking for the homeless team building activity to bring more people together and achieve a bigger impact, with the goal of producing 190 meals for the homeless in one go.
The ideal venue would be one that:
- Is located in the Clapham region, but we’re open to hearing from venues further afield too (we’d love to host more events of this nature and scale across London!)
- Has enough indoor space and plug sockets to accommodate 50-80 guests – we’ll supply all the cooking appliances and equipment
- Is accessible from 7am on the day so the food preparation, cooking, packaging and delivery can take place in time for a 12pm lunch sitting for the homeless, giving them enough time to eat and find shelter for the night
- Can fit us in soon! We already have a number of organisations eager to take part, but that said, we’re willing to wait for the right venue
Team Tactics has a long history of delivering cooking for the homeless team building sessions for groups of around 10-12 people in purpose-built kitchen facilities across London. In fact, we were the very first team building company to offer corporate cooking classes in the 1990s, with our only competitor at the time being no other than the formidable Prue Leith!
Producing even just 10 meals for the homeless in one session is a good achievement, but we’re driven by the goal of making an even bigger difference. Finding the right venue to host 50-80 corporates would mean that we’d be able to cover an entire meal service for Ace of Clubs, a Clapham charity we’ve worked closely with for many years.
Ace of Clubs serves those in the community who are experiencing homelessness, including those sleeping rough or living in temporary of insecure housing. Its dedicated team of support workers and volunteers provide for the immediate needs of those in desperate circumstances with safety, food, warmth, clothing and much more. It holds a lunch service for the homeless from 12pm – 2:15pm each weekday, catering from around 150-190 individuals. However, charities like Ace of Clubs rely wholly on donations and charitable activities such as this to be able to deliver the fantastic services they do. At the same time, the demand for their services and support is increasing, as is the scale and severity of the homelessness crisis in London and across the UK. The latest figures from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network showing that the number of people sleeping rough in London between October and December 2023 was 34% higher than the same period the year before.
With this in mind, it’s perhaps not surprising that we’ve had greater demand for events in more recent years that help organisations give back to their communities. Charitable activities are great alternatives to traditional team building exercises or corporate events because they bring strengthen inter-business skills and relationships while making a real-world impact for a deserving charity or cause.
If you own, manage, run or even just know of a venue that might fit the bill, please get in touch. Equally, if you’d like to take part in one of these events in future to bring your team together and help those in need in your community, we’d love to hear from you.
Tina Benson
Tina founded Team Tactics back in 1995, bringing a strong background in sales and sports. Her passion for the events industry is evident, and she is dedicated to maintaining and building relationships with clients, always striving to provide the perfect event for each and every one.