Every year, social enterprise Beyond Food helps apprentices turn their lives around. This month they will be running stoves at Meatopia, a festival of food and fire
Andrew Cannon’s greatest ambition is to climb Everest. That, and to be happy, and perhaps live with someone some day – more modest goals perhaps, but until recently they all seemed equally impossible dreams.
Cannon found himself cast adrift when life events forced him to return to the UK after 25 years teaching abroad. He struggled to adjust and find work, or even a permanent place to live. Last year, however, his path crossed that of Simon Boyle, an award-winning chef who, while volunteering in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, was inspired to do more for his own community. After a spell teaching cookery skills in hostels, Boyle set up Beyond Food, a social enterprise that, in its own words, uses food as a catalyst for change, hoping to break the cycle of poverty, homelessness and unemployment.
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