Cooking Something Special for Southend Storehouse

Hey lovely, we went back to Southend Storehouse!

Last summer, we delivered over 150 goodie bags to our local food bank. And in December, we returned.

This time with something more comforting than a long shelf life...

We brought home-cooked, hearty meals, prepared with love (and a lot of pasta).

It was cold.

It was chaotic.

But that didn’t stop us cooking up something special.

Jac kindly donated her food shop savings for the year to this Gesture, spending £928 on ingredients and supplies from Tesco and Iceland.

We set ourselves a goal: to provide 200 generous, ready-to-serve meals for the community café - a safe, warm space where people can gather, eat, and feel seen.

Spoiler: we made 246.

On The PPP Bulk Cook Menu

We planned meals that could be made in bulk, transported easily, were kid friendly (so nothing too spicy) and feel like a hug on a plate:

🍽️ Pasta Bake

🍽️ Spaghetti & Meatballs

🍽️ Chilli con carne with rice

🍽️ Mexican-style tacos with rice

🍽️ Soups & crusty rolls

🍽️ Curry with rice and naan

Everything was labelled, dated, and portioned to make life a little easier for the volunteers serving at the café.

The reality behind the smiles

Sometimes, the biggest needs are right on our doorstep.

Southend Storehouse shared that essentials like toilet roll, nappies and toiletries are always in short supply and that on many days, the café relies on fast food donations just to offer something warm.

While a burger and chips can be a treat, it’s not the kind of nourishment people can rely on. That’s why this gesture mattered - and why we’ll absolutely be back to do it again.

Your kindness helps us keep going

These meals were funded by our founder but if you would like to help keep PPP Gestures going, you can donate to our JustGiving page.

💛 Want to help fuel our next gesture? Donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/prettyperfectgestures

🫶 Have something to give (time, food, toiletries)? Find your local food bank: https://www.givefood.org.uk/

@prettyperfectproducts

Replying to @Emily James We try and give back as much as we can throughout the year (personally and as a business) We give back to our customers/followers but also to the community! Whether its money, our time or both ❤️ We helped our local food bank earlier on this year and something that has really stuck with me, was a man in the line outside the food bank saying “It’s christmas come early” (after seeing us getting the bags out of the car) and it actually broke my heart that he was that excited about some packet food and tins! 💔Yesterday I got to see that man again, this time he has got some nice homemade meals for christmas ❤️🌲✨ I know that christmas is magical but also so so hard, financially and emotionally! I want to send love to anybody that needs it! Happy Christmas PPP family ❤️❤️❤️ #prettyperfectgesture #prettyperfectproducts #prettyperfectbulkcook #batchcook #freezermeals

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“Kindness is free to give, but priceless to receive.”

With love,

The Pretty Perfect Team x