A BIG-hearted local charity is cooking on gas after having a brand new kitchen fitted by the Redditch branch of Gast Group Ltd.
Where Next? which provides work experience and and training for people with learning disabilities or those disadvantaged in some way, has a site at Spernall just outside Studley, but the kitchen, which lacked a cooker, desperately needed replacing – plus there was only one toilet on site.
The Nash Road-based Gast Group applied to their charitable body, Idex Foundation in the USA to see if they could fund the project and were amazed when their applciation was approved in full.
Back in April, a team from Gast gave up their free time and came along to remove the existing kitchen, saving both time and costs.
A new kitchen was supplied by Howdens Redditch with bathroom fixtures and fittings from borough firm Bell Plumbing Services.
These were fitted by the team from local builders Elite Building Services with Elite also building a new disabled access toilet and refitting the existing toilet to bring it up to modern standards.
After the dust had settled, a team from Gast again gave up their time to come along and decorate the new kitchen to the delight of the team at Where Next?
Their spokeswoman Jo Wood said: “As a small local charity it is always difficult to have the awareness of the ‘big boys’ and as such raising funding for projects such as this as well as ongoing running costs remains very challenging.
“This project has been a fantastic example of how local businesses have come together to support a local charity and make a huge difference.”
Where Next? has two sites sites in Redditch and one in Studley and offers work experience in areas including horticulture, garden maintenance and landscaping, small parts assembly and woodworking.
