Teenagers take the reins of pizza-packed community project in Sheffield

The chance to share good food can be nourishing in more ways than one – as a group of young people from Sheffield have discovered.
By Alana Roberts
Published 2nd Nov 2020, 16:45 BST
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

For the past month, the creative teenagers have been busy building a community pizza oven at Norwood Allotments, in Firth Park, as part of a project run by Bright Box Makers Space to help them gain new skills and increase their work prospects.

Kisha Bradley, founder and chief executive of Bright Box, helped orchestrate the group but says the project itself has been entirely led by the young people.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They spent two hours at the allotments every Saturday and completed the build on October 31.

The group of creative young people making a community pizza oven at Norwood Allotments.The group of creative young people making a community pizza oven at Norwood Allotments.
The group of creative young people making a community pizza oven at Norwood Allotments.
Read More
Sheffield man's shock as he finds 'animal tooth' in M&S pastry

Ms Bradley said: “From day one we didn’t do anything – we asked them what they wanted it to look like and what materials to use.

"I was like their admin, it was their project. In the first week they were all a bit shy but by week three they really took ownership. Instead of just working on the pizza oven they found other projects around the allotment – you could see they really took pride in the space and wanted to make it their own.

"They’ve been using their iniative and its been really great to see.”

Kisha says the group at Norwood Allotments have taken ownership of the pizza oven projectKisha says the group at Norwood Allotments have taken ownership of the pizza oven project
Kisha says the group at Norwood Allotments have taken ownership of the pizza oven project
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Bright Box Makers Space works to create playful spaces for all young people, regardless of social and economic background, and help them access a range of career-based learning.

It originally received funding at the end of 2019 to host a youth advisory board over summer but, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, these plans had to be put on hold.

Instead, the money was used to help fund the community pizza oven with more ideas planned for next year.

Kisha said: “The intention was always to have a project led by the young people. We’re all about sneaky learning at Bright Box so they would tell us what to do and we would have to be creative and figure out ways that we could embed learning into what they decided to do.

The teenagers led the project to create the pizza oven at Norwood AllotmentsThe teenagers led the project to create the pizza oven at Norwood Allotments
The teenagers led the project to create the pizza oven at Norwood Allotments
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We’ve been working in Parson Cross for about three years so we know a few community leaders and we just asked them if there was anything they needed or that the young people wanted to do.

"They invited us along to two different things – a walking group organised by PXI (Parson Cross Initiatives) with the young people, outside to Costa, so they could socially distance, and then Norwood Allotments which PXI have taken over.”

Kisha says this is where the idea for the pizza oven was born, after the young people mentioned that there had previously been one in situ.

“The allotments were completely overgrown and needed a bit of TLC so I got to work and had about two weeks to pull together the whole programme for them to build the pizza oven,” she added.

The young people worked across four allotments at Norwood Allotments and helped tidy the area as well as create the pizza ovenThe young people worked across four allotments at Norwood Allotments and helped tidy the area as well as create the pizza oven
The young people worked across four allotments at Norwood Allotments and helped tidy the area as well as create the pizza oven
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"We managed to get Mike Scown from Art House Sheffield to help with the build and then Sunshine Pizza Oven to help with making the pizzas and how to use the oven for the first time – which we’ve not gotten to do yet because we’re about to go into another lockdown.

"We’re now hoping that once the next lockdown is over we can celebrate with pizzas.”

For more information visit Bright Box’s website.

In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a digital subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.