Wolfson Foundation backs Gympanzees kitchen to create inclusive employment opportunities
The Wolfson Foundation has awarded Gympanzees a £110,000 grant towards our commercial kitchen, which will cater for our inviting café and provide training and employment opportunities for disabled adults.
The grant will fund a kitchen designed from the ground up with disabled staff in mind. This isn’t about adapting a standard kitchen after the fact. Every detail has been carefully considered to remove barriers and unlock potential.
The kitchen design will carefully create a workspace that accommodates wheelchair users or other physical impairments and differences. The layout ensures wide circulation spaces for easy movement and safe working.
The kitchen will supply our 130-cover café, which sits at the heart of our new centre. It’s designed as a welcoming community space where families can gather after using our activity rooms, cementing new friendships over food and conversation. The café includes quiet booths and noise-cancelling features for visitors with sensory sensitivities, moveable furniture to accommodate wheelchairs and buggies, and facilities for families who need to prepare specialist foods.
But the kitchen means something bigger than great food and good coffee.
It’s a real training ground where disabled adults can develop practical skills in food preparation, kitchen operations and customer service. Working in our café, they’ll gain confidence through genuine responsibilities like processing payments and interacting with visitors. These are the kinds of everyday interactions that build independence and open doors to future employment.
Too many disabled young people leave education without clear pathways to work. The skills gap is real, and opportunities are scarce. This award means we can create a kitchen that is a supportive environment where disabled adults can learn, practise and build their CVs with meaningful work experience.
The Wolfson Foundation is an independent grant-making charity with a focus on research and education.
Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said:
“Gympanzees have shown huge ambition and creativity to set up their first permanent centre. We are delighted to help them create real world training and work experience in the specially designed kitchen, offering skills and opportunities to adults with disabilities.”
Our café and kitchen represent one more way Gympanzees removes barriers. When our doors open later this year, disabled young adults will have opportunities to develop skills, gain employment experience and build futures. And every family visiting will benefit from the thoughtful design that makes our space genuinely inclusive. A massive thank you to the Wolfson Foundation for helping us make this happen.
The Wolfson Foundation’s aim is to contribute to civil society by supporting high-quality projects in science, health, heritage, humanities and the arts. Since it was established in 1955, the Wolfson Foundation has awarded over £1 billion (£2 billion in real terms) to around 14,000 projects throughout the UK.
