W
L
THE WOMAN WHO WON’T LET A CHILD GO
HUNGRY IN WIRRAL…
Ema Wilkes believes in the importance of empowering
women of every age to be brave and powerful within
their communities.
Having lived in supported accommodation herself, Ema
wanted to do something positive, and put her skills into
something that really made a difference. She came up
with a plan to start a community café and with the help of
people taking a chance on her, she opened the following
week.
The cafe was to offer food to all, no matter their financial
circumstance, and was set up on a pay as you feel concept,
where people could pay in time, skills or money. It soon
built a team of volunteers and local people who made
the concept a reality, running world food days, providing
crisis hampers and working with local stores and food
retails long before it was the fashionable thing to do.
NEO Community cafe is now working hard in the heart of
the Beaconsfield community in Rock Ferry. NEO delivers
an action-packed programme of activities including arts,
craft, games, cookery and fun days, as well as providing
healthy and nutritious breakfast and lunches to children
and adults.
Throughout this summer a team of volunteers – led by
Ema’s husband Ken – put together six and a half thousand
packed lunches to support summer holiday provision in
local community centres across Birkenhead supporting
the Feeding Birkenhead initiative, 6 NCS projects and
other smaller projects.
16 wirrallife.com
NEO stands for ‘Need, Engage, Organise,’ and wherever
the team sees a need in the community Ema is ready to
help find a solution. One recent addition to the NEO offer
has been low cost veg boxes, with willing volunteers ready
to deliver them to elderly or vulnerable local people who
may find it a challenge to carry heavy shopping home.
With the support of the Steve Morgan Foundation, NEO
have just been able to purchase a refrigerated van, which
will enable more food to be collected, and open a whole
new world of possibilities.
Ema’s ability to inspire volunteers to get involved enables
her to reach out across the whole borough. The Christmas
Hamper campaign she leads produces almost 3000
hampers of toys, food and toiletries for struggling Wirral
residents.
The NEO 50 project asks local businesses big and small
to donate as little as £50 per month (again in a pay as
you feel model) to see up to £60,000 more investment in
community activity and change across the Wirral. More
businesses are supporting this initiative but there is always
space for more, to help support all the small projects
waiting to flourish and make change, break down social
isolation and encourage community lead change building
strong resilient self-sufficient communities.
To find out more about NEO Community, visit:
www.neocommunitycafe.org.uk