Epping Forest’s largest emergency food agency is a partner with a charity which helps students improve their prospects of getting a job.

3Food4U has the same chair of trustees and also shares many resources with the Youth Employment Strategy YES charity, which motivates and encourages students to have an awareness of how to improve their employability skills.

YES do this by working with students from Years 9 and 10 with two conferences and mentoring students in Year 11 – a Motivation (MOT) Conference for Year 9 pupils and a World of Work (WOW) Conference for students in the year above.

YES works with six schools across the Epping Forest District Council area - King Harold Academy (KHA), Debden Park High School (DPHS), Roding Valley High School, Epping St John's, Davenant Foundation School and West Hatch High School - and provides free motivational and careers conferences at Waltham Abbey Marriott Hotel.

Epping Forest Guardian: Cllr Cohen with pupils from King Harold Academy.Cllr Cohen with pupils from King Harold Academy. (Image: John Price)

On March 1, YES hosted a Conference with KHA and DPHS, which was very well attended, despite the teachers strike, and full of inspiration, motivation and student engagement.

The organisers have thanked conference presenters Ben Adetimole and Sejal Chana. For their involvement.

Ben said: "I really enjoyed today especially the growth mindset part. I just picked up my daughter talking to her about growth and fixed mindset. Her reply was why don’t they do this at my school."

Epping Forest Guardian: The latest conference took place at the start of this month.The latest conference took place at the start of this month. (Image: John Price)

Alexander Pisani, assistant headteacher at KHA, said: “Our students were really energised and inspired, we have some great feedback, they're all looking forward to coming back for the second conference in the autumn.”

3Food4U has a fundraising page at https://www.stewardship.org.uk/partners/20356308.

The community surplus hubs are open as follows:

  • Monday: Waltham Abbey - 13 Sun Street - 11.30am to 1pm
  • Tuesday: Loughton - Loughton Club, 8 Station Road - 11.30am to 1pm
  • Wednesday: Chigwell Row - All Saints Church Hall, Romford Road - 5pm to 6.30pm
  • Thursday: Ongar - Zinc Arts Centre, High Street - 1pm to 2.30pm
  • Friday: Waltham Abbey - 13, Sun Street - 11.30am to 1pm

For further details, visit 3food4u.org, email info.3food4u@gmail.com or call 01992 842642.