Roots to Resilience: CC Foundation
CC Foundation is a grassroots organisation working at the heart of Lewisham to empower communities, reduce inequality and create long-term opportunities for local people. They deliver programmes that tackle social exclusion through mentoring, skills training, education, and community support. Their work engages young people, families and vulnerable groups, offering positive pathways away from hardship and towards resilience.
The CC Foundation received a £3,000 Food Justice Community grant from Lewisham Local in 2025 to launch a food justice programme rooted in CC Foundation’s ethos of empowerment, opportunity and lasting change. By teaching food skills, growing resilience, and fostering partnerships, the project aimed to reduce food insecurity in Lewisham and leave a legacy of self-sufficiency and community strength.
With this funding, CC Foundation aimed to strengthen their food justice work in Lewisham by moving from emergency food aid towards long-term, sustainable solutions, in line with the funding programme aims, and Lewisham's Food Justice Action Plan.
For over two years, CC Foundation has run a community food bank supporting hundreds of local families facing hardship. While this has been vital, they know food parcels alone cannot end food insecurity which is why they wanted to build a programme that tackles root causes and creates lasting change.
As part of the grant, they delivered nutrition and food growing workshops to build people’s confidence, skills and opportunities to reduce their reliance on food banks and access healthier, affordable food. Each participant was asked to think about what they wanted to grow, where they would grow it and when. They had a chance of sowing seeds and were given additional seed packs to take home.
This approach was inspired by their founder, UK music artist Fekky, who now lives on a farm and grows his own food and has a Youtube series documenting his journey. He currently supplies the food bank with eggs from his farm.
“Food growing isn’t just important as a source of food, it helps people’s wellbeing and promotes good mental health. Fekky started out growing to support his mental wellbeing, and his journey went from there.” Anna Managing Director at the CC Foundation told us.
She gave an example of one of the participants who had just moved into a more permanent home after being moved around in temporary accommodation. Anna told us how happy she was to be able to take her pot to her new home, and place on the windowsill where she now has sunlights coming through.
The workshop had 10 participants, many of whom had not grown their own food before.
One participant said, “I’ve never taken the initiative to grow before… at home things grow on big farms, now I know the process I’m going to keep growing’
Other participant commented “It’s fascinating to see something planted in a small pot, and see it eventually grow to something to fill your appetite”.
The CC Foundation runs a foodbank every Friday 1-3pm at their new premises. They are always happy to take donations, and particularly look for hygiene and cleaning products.
You can find out more about their work and how to donate here: CC Foundation – Achieve your potential
You can find details of CC Foundation's foodbank, along with a list of other Lewisham free and lowcost food provison on our Food Map page here.
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