Manchester Airport £3k grant helps Wythenshawe volunteers provide meals for community

A group of volunteers from Wythenshawe Community Kitchen received a £3,000 grant from Manchester Airport’s Community Trust Fund, which will help provide hot meals for up to 40 people in the community every week.

The team at FoodCycle Wythenshawe Brooklands cooks up a free three-course community meal each week, turning surplus food that would otherwise go to waste into a delicious, nutritious meal for anyone who needs it—helping tackle food poverty, loneliness, and food waste.

Now, they are making use of a new industrial dishwasher after their venue, the Church of the Nazarene in Brooklands, was awarded the maximum amount, £3,000, by the Trust Fund—supporting the small team of volunteers to more efficiently serve their guests.

FoodCycle Wythenshawe Brooklands is among more than 100 weekly meals run by community dining charity FoodCycle, including seven in Greater Manchester in Salford, Levenshulme, Oldham, Prestwich, and Wythenshawe.

Since launching in September 2021, the FoodCycle Wythenshawe Brooklands volunteers have served up more than 5,000 free three-course community meals and saved almost seven tonnes of surplus food from going to waste. Nationally, the charity dished up 162,991 community meals last year (2024), saving 320 tonnes of food from going to waste.

Among those contributing their free time at FoodCycle Wythenshawe Brooklands is David Quayle—a former terminal operations worker who enjoyed a 35-year career at Manchester Airport before his retirement two years ago. He now volunteers as a cook with FoodCycle once per week, preparing meals for members of the community who are in need.

David explained: “We’re thrilled with this funding from the Manchester Airport Community Trust Fund, allowing the church to replace an old and obsolete dishwasher, which means we no longer have to assign volunteers to keep on top of washing up the old-fashioned way. We can now focus on cooking nourishing meals for those who need them.

“The great thing about this project is that we are not only providing vulnerable or socially isolated people with a hot meal and somewhere to socialize, but we are also cutting food waste, taking surplus food donated to us by local businesses and turning it into nutritious, filling meals for people in need.

“Our community meal is open on Wednesdays from 5 PM and no booking is required—everyone is welcome.”

The Manchester Airport Community Trust Fund is managed by a committee of trustees from the local area alongside representatives from the airport. It meets quarterly and makes pledges worth up to £100,000 every year to groups based within 10 miles of the airport, including parts of Manchester, Tameside, Trafford, Stockport, and Cheshire. Groups are able to bid for up to £3,000 of funding for initiatives with a clear and lasting community benefit.

More than £28,000 of donations were agreed at the latest Community Trust Fund meeting, benefiting a total of 16 community groups, projects, and not-for-profit organizations in Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

Also receiving a grant is Stockport Trinity Cricket Club, which has also received the full £3,000 towards the cost of new wicket covers. Peter Herbert, the club’s Treasurer, said: “Increasingly wet summers mean that we lose a lot of playing time to the weather, and these improvements to our facility will mean a significant reduction in downtime. The grant application process was straightforward, and as a small charity always struggling for funds, we are extremely grateful for the Community Trust Fund’s support.”

Hidden Treasure Trust in Partington will receive just under £1,500 to purchase new table tennis tables.

Ruth Lancey, CEO of Hidden Treasure Trust, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured this investment from Manchester Airport’s Community Trust Fund for our community. With the leisure centre closed, it provides another space for residents to be able to get fitter and meet others.”

And in Goostrey, Cheshire, a community interest company managing a local green space, Shear Brook Wood, was awarded just over £1,500 for new benches and a shelter.

“We’re proud to have been able to support such a diverse range of applications made to the community trust fund and we have already supported more than 30 good causes so far this year, reaching thousands of local people. When we say Manchester Airport is proud to serve the people of Greater Manchester and the North, we don’t mean just connecting them to the places they want to fly to—and the Community Trust Fund is a vital part of our strategy for supporting our neighboring communities,” said Robert Pattison, chair of the Community Trust Fund.