Winter Newsletter

Winter Newsletter!!

Ripple Christmas party - The Spider’s Web - A connection stronger than steel

Preparing for 2024

As another challenging year comes to an end, we would like to showcase some of the good stories from the latte months of the year, and also take a peek forward to hopefully a more prosperous 2024.

It would not be appropriate to write an end of year newsletter without thanking all our volunteers for the tireless work they do to help keep us running. There are so many of you that dedicate your time to assist The Ripple in delivering our work throughout the year.

Thank You!!

A meal out at China Red with some of the volunteer family!!

Looking Back to the end of Summer with our youth services

Food & Networking at The Ripple - Ayesha Mir

It was World Mental Health Day on the 10th of October. We know that 1 in 4 people experience mental health issues including and not restricted to anxiety, mood disorders and depression. Here at the Ripple, we often run a 6-week ‘Food and Mood’ Workshop to create awareness of how the food we eat affects our mental health daily, learn the basics of creating and reforming our food & lifestyle choices and experience positive health.

Tristan and I also took part in the ‘Menu for All’ launch event hosted by Edinburgh Community Food hoping to create a ‘Menu for All’ Network which aims to join food and support access across Edinburgh. The aim is to make the path to getting food on the table and accessing money, easier and clearer for both organisations and individuals facing hardship. This initiative is launched as part of the Scottish Governments ‘Cash First: Towards ending the need for food banks in Scotland’ approach and aims at tackling food insecurity by reducing the need for emergency food parcels which is part of Scotland’s ‘Good Food Nation Bill’. The Bill enshrines in law the Scottish Government's commitment to Scotland being a Good Food Nation, where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day.

A Seasonal Dish

An Autumn dish to have in winter. We love all kinds of soups here at the Hub Grub café, I particularly enjoy all versions of carrot soup, here is one of my favourites’, Carrot-Ginger soup. I hope you will enjoy it!

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil
1 large onion, chopped.
2 tbsp coarsely grated ginger.
2 garlic cloves, sliced.
½ tsp ground nutmeg
850ml vegetable stock
500g carrot (preferably organic), sliced.
400g can cannellini beans – drain and wash the beans.

Supercharged topping

4 tbsp almonds in their skins, cut into slivers.
sprinkle of nutmeg

Method

STEP 1

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, ginger and garlic, and fry for 5 mins until starting to soften. Stir in the nutmeg and cook for 1 min more.

STEP 2

Pour in the stock, add the carrots, beans, then cover and simmer for 20-25 mins until the carrots are tender.

STEP 3

Scoop a third of the mixture into a bowl and blitz the remainder with a hand blender or in a food processor until smooth. Return everything to the pan and heat until bubbling. Serve topped with the almonds and nutmeg.

Lunch & Friday Club

Some of the activities the lunch club took part in!!

Lunch Club member Adam enjoyed his 96th birthday in November

The Wellbeing Project

We had our final session with Nelly from Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust making festive wreaths from seasonal things that we had collected from outside. These sessions have been really fantastic, and we have learned so much, from identifying bird song, pressing apples by hand, making our own herbal teas, and tasting and learning about the health benefits of foods that we have foraged in the green and blue spaces that Edinburgh has. Everyone has felt the benefits of being outdoors and active, learning, slowing down and taking notice, and making connections with each other and with nature, which are all ways to wellbeing. A big thanks to ELGT and we hope to be able to offer more of the same next year

Citizen meeting

Last month 16 residents attended a meeting with the council to discuss the issue with conditions of roads and pavements in the local area. We are awaiting updates on improvements and considering how the local community can become more involved in the planning process in regard to improvements being made in the area. With such great engagement on this piece of work, we will be looking towards conducting some research in the street cleaning department to see if they can come and listen to concerns of local residents. Check back in spring 2024.

A look to the Future

Coming in Early 2024…

There will be some changes to the building layout. We haved moved some of our office work to an additional space which is freeing up more spce for doing things in the Ripple building itself.
Ripple Re-fillery - A chance to buy your everyday essentials, in only the quantities you actually need, so you spend less and collectively we waste less.
Events with the Binks Hub, look out on our socials for opportunities to engage in brand new opportunities and help us create an artistic view on life in Restalrig, Lochend and Craigentinny.
January Prize Draws - Members will be invited to enter into a prize draw for a voucher to help the extended pay gap between Christmas and the end of January.
Starting from February our 65+ Adventure and Outing club will be taking out small groups twice a month
Our Wellbeing day returns on Saturday 24th February 10am-4pm