The Brixton estate cafe offering items cheaply to make sure no one is undernourished during lockdown

By Jacob Paul

A cafe has set up a shop offering 15 items for £5 to ensure everyone has access to a good meal.

Brixton People’s Kitchen gives out items like cheese, milk, fruit and veg, pasta and other essentials are available cheaply for people in need.

The shop in the Ethelred Estate on Beaufoy Walk, is open Monday-Friday 10am-4pm.

It began by collecting foods that were going to be thrown away by business, and cooking it into a big community feast.

Managing director Kemi Akinola said: “We want to provide a better and wider variety of food for people in the area.”

Kemi set the project up as a cafe two years ago.  It relied heavily on grants and donations and the cafe was set up to decrease this dependence.

The low-cost shop idea came out of the first lockdown.

Kemi said: “People talk to us and they tell us what they’re going through. What we’ve found is that people are very honest. Some people feel like its really good deal they will pay more or pay for someone else’s shop because they can afford to.

“Other people also turn up and are in dire straights and we let them do a free shop because we know that they can’t afford to buy it.”

More than 270 members use the community shop, and 500 volunteers are involved with the initiative.

Kemi wanted to let her members know: “We’ve got you”. She hopes to open for takeaways during the second lockdown.