Two Ealing Charities Given The King's Award for Voluntary Service
Znaniye Foundation and MindFood receive equivalent of an MBE
Znaniye Foundation volunteers with some of the young people they support
November 13, 2024
Two charities based in Ealing are celebrating being awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2024.
The work of the Znaniye Foundation and Mindfood has been recognised with what is the equivalent of an MBE for charitable and voluntary organisations and is considered the highest award a UK voluntary group can receive.
The honours will be presented next year to representatives of the groups who will receive an award crystal and certificate from Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. Two volunteers from each group will also be invited to garden parties at Buckingham Palace in May and June 2025, along with other recipients of this year’s Award
The Znaniye Foundation has been supporting young people in Ealing and beyond for the last two decades. It works with children, young people and families from BAME communities, living in income and socially deprived areas. Its programmes work to break the language, income, and social deprivation barriers, and give these young people an opportunity to foster a sense of inclusion and develop the necessary self-confidence to grow into responsible adults in a diverse society.
MindFood supports people struggling with stress, depression, anxiety and isolation, by teaching them food-growing, as well as sharing tips & techniques to nurture better mental health. It delivers gardening and other mindful nature-based activities throughout the week at 2 growing sites in Ealing: Cleveley Crescent Allotments near Hanger Lane and Horsenden Farm in Perivale. It also runs dedicated sessions for selected support groups at Chiswick House.
Lucy Clark, MindFood’s Programme Director said, “We are absolutely delighted to receive The Kings Award, which recognises the efforts of our dedicated team, and our amazing volunteers. Every day they inspire us to do more to help people struggling with mental difficulties - they show us that with the right support, they can live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives. As we say at MindFood ‘You can’t make a plant grow, all you can do is give it the conditions it needs to thrive.’ We feel that people are a lot like that.
“We would also like to congratulate all the other Kings Award winners: we are in awe of their heroic efforts to address inequalities and make our world a better and more hopeful place to live. We feel honoured to be in such phenomenal company.”
Znaniye Foundation and Mindfood are among 281 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year.
The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Her Majesty The late Queen’s Golden Jubilee, and was continued following the accession of His Majesty The King. 2024 marks the second year of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service. Recipients are announced annually on 14 November.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |