The kettle is always on
Warmth first, paperwork second. Every visit, every programme, every time – you’re a neighbour before you’re a case number.
About us
Fourteen years of tea, toast and turning up
Brightside began with one soup pot in a church hall and a stubborn belief that nobody in Croydon should face a hard week alone. The pot got bigger. The belief didn’t change.
Our story
It started with soup
In the winter of 2011, Maureen Kelly – a recently retired school cook from Broad Green – borrowed the kitchen at St Saviour’s church hall and started serving Saturday soup to anyone who turned up. Sam Osei, a youth worker whose club had just lost its funding, brought a football and stayed. Week one fed eleven people. Week twelve fed ninety.
The pair had no strategy document, no fundraising plan and, by their own admission, no idea what they were doing – just a rule they never broke: ask people what would help, then do that. People asked for food they could cook at home, so the food bank came in 2014. Parents asked for somewhere safe for teenagers, so Bright Sparks followed. An older gentleman asked, quietly, if anyone might just visit now and then – and Golden Hours was born on the spot, with Maureen as the first visitor.
Maureen retired (properly this time) in 2023 and now holds the entirely official title of President of the Quiz. Sam still runs Thursday studio nights. The soup, for the record, is still on the menu every Wednesday.
Along the way
- 2011
Maureen’s Saturday soup kitchen opens at St Saviour’s, West Croydon.
- 2014
The food bank opens two mornings a week – fresh fruit and veg from day one.
- 2016
Bright Sparks youth club launches with one football and a borrowed sports hall.
- 2018
Kestrel Housing offers us the old sorting office on Milton Lane at a peppercorn rent. The Hub – and its yellow door – is born.
- 2020
Lockdown. Volunteers deliver 11,000 parcels by bike, bus and borrowed van.
- 2022
We become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation – registered charity no. 1198765 – and free ESOL classes begin.
- 2025
42,180 meals, 316 volunteers, 940 families supported. And counting.
What we stand for
Four things we won’t budge on
No wrong door
Come in for food and leave with English classes, a lunch club place for your mum and a quiz ticket. Whatever door you knock on, we’ll help you find the right one.
Local first
Croydon money stays in Croydon. Our staff, suppliers, partners and volunteers are from the borough – the help never has far to travel.
Show the sums
Audited accounts every spring, pinned to the noticeboard where everyone queues. If you give us a pound, you can see where it went.
The people
Small team, enormous kettle
Six staff, 316 volunteers, and a president of the quiz. These are the faces you’ll meet at the Hub.
Priya Nair
Centre ManagerRuns the Hub, the rota and the front desk, usually all at once. Joined as a food bank volunteer in 2016 and never quite left. Designated safeguarding lead.
Grace Okafor
Fundraising & Partnerships LeadThe reason the minibus has fuel and the quiz has prizes. Talk to Grace about corporate partnerships, sponsorship and legacies – she replies within the week.
Sam Osei
Co-founder & Youth LeadCo-founded Brightside in 2011 and still runs Bright Sparks. JNC-qualified youth worker, five-a-side referee, deputy safeguarding lead and studio night’s biggest fan.
Fatima Rahman
ESOL CoordinatorSpeaks four languages and teaches in one. Built our five-level ESOL programme from a single conversation class in 2022 – and still teaches Level 1 herself.
Marcus Reid
Food Bank CoordinatorEx-supermarket manager who now runs the borough’s friendliest shelves. Knows every regular by name and every tin by date. Wednesday soup is his grandmother’s recipe.
Eleanor Chu
Volunteer & Golden Hours CoordinatorMatches every volunteer to the right role and every Golden Hours member to the right visitor. If you’ve had a “cuppa and chat” interview, it was probably with Eleanor.
Our trustees
All unpaid, all local. The board meets quarterly and the minutes go on the Hub noticeboard.
- Rev. Sarah Adeyemi – ChairVicar of St Saviour’s, West Croydon, where the first soup was served. Trustee since 2013.
- David Lindqvist – TreasurerRetired chartered accountant. Insists on the noticeboard accounts being readable “by an actual human”.
- Dr Amara BoatengLocal GP. Champions our work with social prescribers and keeps referral routes simple.
- Tom HardcastleCommunity director at Kestrel Housing, our peppercorn landlord. Declares that interest at every single meeting.
- Yusuf DemirSurrey Street greengrocer and the reason there’s always fresh veg on the food bank shelves.
- Nicola MarshEmployment solicitor and former Bright Sparks parent. Leads on safeguarding and HR for the board.
2025 annual impact
The year in numbers
From our audited 2025 annual report. Income £486,000 · 68p in every £1 spent on programmes. Paper copies at the front desk, or email us for a PDF.
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meals served
food bank parcels plus every Wednesday lunch
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families supported
roughly half with someone in work
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ESOL learners
speaking 26 languages between them
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Golden Hours visits
an hour of company, every week, without fail
With thanks to our partners
- Kestrel Housing Group
- Surrey Street Traders
- Whitgift Bakery
- St Saviour’s, West Croydon
- Bright FM 96.3
- Addiscombe Rotary Club
- Croydon Voluntary Alliance
Keeping everyone safe
Our safeguarding statement
Brightside Community Trust is committed to keeping every child, young person and adult who uses our services safe from harm. Everyone working with young people or older neighbours holds an enhanced DBS check, renewed every three years, and completes safeguarding training before their first session. Our safeguarding and safer-recruitment policies are reviewed annually by the board, led by trustee Nicola Marsh, and copies are available at the front desk or by email.
Got a concern? Contact our designated safeguarding lead, Priya Nair, on 020 7946 0812 or safeguarding@brightsidetrust.org.uk. If someone is in immediate danger, call 999.
Be part of the story
The next chapter needs you in it
Fourteen years in, the recipe hasn’t changed: neighbours, turning up for neighbours. Fancy joining in?