Sheffield community group People’s Kitchen Pitsmoor to return with annual event in Burngreave

Abbeyfield Park house located in the heart of the park where People's Kitchen Pitsmoor are based.

People’s Kitchen Pitsmoor, based in Abbeyfield House at Abbeyfield Park, Pitsmoor, was founded by the local residents who had secured funding and began running community monthly food events.

The group’s goal is to transform a derelict set of buildings into a thriving hub for the community. The buildings are a set of old stables, associated to the Grade Two listed house.

Abbeyfield House is currently used by many social organisations around Sheffield, including the annual Abbeyfield Park Multicultural Festival.

People's Kitchen PItsmoor in one of their previous events getting creative with clay

Inspired by the community’s shared love of food, the group aims to create a community kitchen and social institution in the heart of the park, allowing people to share and create life-long memories and experience multiple cultures in Pitsmoor.

It now uses the building for events which the whole community to come go along to and take part in.

There is also a part-time cafe run by the founders.

Events have welcomed members of Burngreave’s diverse cultural community, encouraging them to make new friends and spend time celebrating different lifestyles and traditions.

A table filled with scrumptious home-baked goods and tea set for a previous event at People's Kitchen Pitsmoor.

Starting back in 2018, monthly food events at Abbeyfield House have encouraged residents to share and teach recipes from across the globe. Recipes included Chilean sauce making, Georgian cheesebread, Ukrainian pierogi and, closer to home, vegetable soup from Grimesthorpe allotment vegetables.

Alongside this, the group has been running arts and crafts classes to make items for the future cafe including bowls, plates and tablecloths and even a woodfired pizza oven.

In early 2020, a Spring Clean event was hosted in which volunteers from the community began to work on renovating the main community room at Abbeyfield House.

This included successfully upholstering carpets and painting the walls, fitting in suitable furniture for yoga and cooking classes, community dining and social food festivals, while respecting the historical importance the building played throughout the years of the World wars.

The group is hoping to build a community kitchen inside the house and is awaiting redevelopment plans which welcoming donations towards the project.

It also aims to bring back the stable blocks as a space for the community kitchen to grow.

The organisation is now running events following government guidelines. One of the upcoming events is the annual chutney festival, planned for December 3 at Abbeyfield Park House from 6.30 to 8.30pm.

A spokesperson for People’s Kitchen Pitsmoor said: “We would love to welcome new members,” and added that it was a great way to get to know people and show off talents.