Reports on Saffron Kitchen Project - Nourish, Train & Employ

Project Report | Jul 15, 2026
Our Year So Far...

By Evelina Eskenazi | Founder and Director

Dear Friends,

As we reach the halfway point of 2026, we wanted to pause and celebrate some of the amazing moments and achievements from the year so far. From new milestones to new opportunities, it has been a year filled with growth and connections, and we’re excited to share a few highlights with you!

SKP Milestones

Celebrating Four Years of SKP
In April, we celebrated SKP's 4th birthday!! Over the past four years, hundreds of people have helped shape SKP into the community it is today. To everyone who has cooked alongside us, volunteered, donated, partnered with us, or simply believed in our mission thank you! Your support has made every meal, every training opportunity, and every success possible. A special thank you goes to our long-term team members; whose dedication and commitment continue to make SKP thrive every single day.

300,000 Meals!
This June, we proudly prepared our 300,000th meal! Reaching this milestone less than a year after celebrating our 200,000th meal means we've cooked another 100,000 meals in under 12 months, a remarkable achievement that reflects both the dedication of our team and the growing need for nutritious food among vulnerable communities in Athens. While we're proud to celebrate this milestone, it also reminds us why our work continues to matter.

The Year So Far in Numbers:

60,333 meals served by July 2026.
We served between 450 - 500 meals a day, with over 240 takeaway meals distributed to the local community every day.
30 students successfully trained and graduated from our culinary training programme.
48 new volunteers joined us between January and May, bringing our total to 574 volunteers since SKP was founded.
We welcomed one new part-time team member in January, supporting food distribution, data management, and communications.
We also welcomed a new six-month intern who has been supporting our fundraising efforts and contributing to the continued growth of our work.
We expanded our recipe collection with 15 new dishes—including our now popular yoghurt pasta & zucchini cream chicken!

... and we're only half way through the year!

Community Events:

Behind the Red Door
One of the highlights of the year has been the Behind the Red Door initiative, our fundraising event series organised in collaboration with our dear partners Ankaa Project to support the running costs of our building. From lively comedy nights and competitive quiz nights to our much-loved supper clubs, these evenings brought people together through food, laughter, and solidarity while helping sustain our everyday work. Every ticket purchased and every guest who attended helped strengthen our community and contribute to building a more sustainable future for SKP and Ankaa in Athens.

Celebrating with Our Community
One of the year's most memorable moments was catering our very first wedding for one of our long-time friends and partners! Being trusted to prepare food for such a special celebration was both an honour and a reminder of the meaningful relationships that grow at SKP.

ARAM X SKP Supper Club
During Ramadan, our friends at Aram hosted a special Iftar supper club at Salamlik, their private dining space at Somerset House in London, in support of Saffron Kitchen Project. The evening brought people together around Syrian sharing plates and meaningful conversations, while raising funds and increasing awareness of our work. We are grateful for the opportunity to share our mission with new audiences through the power of food and community.

Training Future Chefs

Our culinary training programme continues to create opportunities for people looking to build a future in hospitality. This year, we completed our 13th cohort, with 30 students graduating and bringing the total number of graduates since the programme began to 197. Through practical kitchen experience, professional mentoring, and valuable workplace skills, our participants are gaining the tools and confidence needed to open pathways to employment. We're especially proud that the programme received an overall satisfaction score of 4.8/5, reflecting the positive experience of our participants and the dedication of our training team.

As we look ahead to the second half of 2026, we remain committed to creating opportunities through food, training, and community. While the need for our work continues to grow, so does our determination to meet it with care and espect.

Thank you for following our journey and for believing in what we do. Every milestone we've celebrated this year has been made possible by a community that shares our vision of a more inclusive and connected future.

We can't wait to share what the rest of the year has in store.

With love and solidarity,

Evelina and the SKP Team

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Mar 13, 2026
Welcoming New Faces to the SKP Team!

By Evelina Eskenazi | Founder and Director

Saffron Kitchen Project (SKP) has started 2026 with a real sense of momentum. The year has already brought a lot of activity in the kitchen, and the need for meals in our community remains as urgent as ever. Every day we are reminded that access to nutritious food and supportive community spaces continues to be essential for many people in Athens.

Our takeaway meal distributions have now reached around 250 meals each day, meaning portions are peaking at 550 a day. With this growth comes the responsibility to ensure that everything runs in a way that is organised, respectful, and fair for everyone who comes through our doors.

To support this, we are very happy to welcome two new members to the extended SKP team.

Alexandra, originally from Athens, has joined us as our part-time Community Engagement and Distribution Officer. Alexandra is helping ensure that our daily takeaway distributions run smoothly and with care, making sure the process is organised and dignified for everyone we serve. Alongside coordinating distributions, she is also helping us strengthen how we collect and understand information about our work. From improving our feedback forms to tracking patterns in the services we offer, Alexandra is helping us stay on top of the evolving needs in our community and across the wider network of partners we work with. Her energy, dedication and fresh ideas are already making a big difference, including ensuring we stay on trend on our social media and communications! Alexandra also brings a calm and grounded presence to the teams as the resident yogi, she manages to keep everything feeling relaxed and balanced, even during the busiest of distributions.

We are also lucky to have Mathilde, an intern joining us for the next six months. Originally from France, Mathilde has many years of experience in Athens and knows the local context very well, having volunteered with many of our partners and colleagues working across the field. At SKP, she is dedicating her time to researching alternative sources of funding and sponsorship, something that is incredibly valuable for a small grassroots organisation like ours. Having someone able to focus deeply on this work, and who understands the realities and needs of organisations like SKP, is a huge support for our team. Mathilde also brings great energy and creativity into the space. She is known for her fabulous nails and effortless sense of style.

We are incredibly grateful to welcome Alex and Mathilde to the SKP team. As our community continues to grow, so does the circle of people who make this work possible. It means a lot to welcome new faces, new ideas, and new energy into the kitchen, and we are very happy to have them as part of the SKP community. Together, we look forward to everything we can achieve in the months ahead!

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Nov 17, 2025
Sophia's Journey with Saffron Kitchen Project.

By Evelina Eskenazi | Founder and Director

We are so pleased to introduce you to our new team member, Sophia, whose journey with Saffron Kitchen Project is a powerful reminder of what opportunity, courage, and community can create. Originally from Nigeria, Sophia has lived in Greece for six years and came to us with a background in housekeeping and hospitality supervision. Even then, her true passion was always food, experimenting, creating, and learning as much as she could in her own time.

Sophia first connected with SKP through our partners at Echo100Plus. At the time, she was considering another training programme within hospitality, but when she heard about our Advanced Culinary Training, something clicked. “I love food,” she says. “I love creating recipes and playing with flavours.” With remarkable determination, she even left her job so she could fully commit to the course, knowing it might be her one chance to follow her passion. “I wanted to put in 110%,” she shares.

Throughout the training, Sophia stood out for her curiosity and dedication. She describes learning new techniques, like colouring oils with vegetables, as “magic,” and speaks with gratitude for Pantelis, her instructor, who encouraged her to loosen up, trust her instincts, and create her own space in the kitchen. “No moment was wasted,” she remembers. “A kitchen should be an institution. It gives us an opportunity to enter wherever we are.”

Her confidence blossomed. Knife skills, station management, teamwork, she embraced it all. During their first practical exam, she realized just how far she’d come. The class turned the task into a friendly competition, and she excelled. “I could see myself improving,” she says. “I felt like a professional.” By the end of the course, Pantelis himself told her she had the potential to be a Sous Chef.

Soon after graduating, an opening arose at SKP, and Sophia applied with pride. Today, she serves as our Kitchen Coordinator, and it has been a joy to watch her grow into this role. Her story is a shining example of what our programmes are designed to do: empower talented individuals, open doors to employment, and build pathways that follow them through every stage of their journey.

For Sophia, the opportunity has been life-changing. “I still can’t believe I achieved it,” she says. “If I take this knowledge back home, especially everything we learned with finger foods, they won’t let me go in any hotel.” She continues to stay close to her classmates, having helped create a WhatsApp group where they still exchange advice, job leads, and encouragement.

We’re truly happy to have Sophia on our team and to see her continue growing through every step of her journey. Her experience reflects what we strive for at SKP: creating opportunities where people with talent and dedication can build their futures with confidence. Supporting individuals like Sophia as they flourish, both in our programmes and beyond, is at the heart of what we do, and we’re excited to see all that she will achieve in the years ahead.