Camaraderie that helps turn lives around through a love of cooking

William Hosie joins Marchioness of Bath Emma Thynn at the Beyond Food Foundation in London Bridge

THERE'S a poignancy about this place," said the Marchioness of Bath, visiting Brigade, the bar and restaurant in London Bridge that is the heart of the Beyond Food Foundation. "You can feel the sense of change." The building was once London's oldest fire station and today its tenant, Brigade, helps people transform their lives through the power of food, offering apprenticeships to those who have been left behind.

Over six months of training, people learn how to run a kitchen, wait on customers and look after a business - developing skills that will equip them for jobs. Beyond Food is one of eight charities being funded with a £31,250 grant out of the £250,000 pot of funds raised for our Winter Survival Appeal from the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund, which is administered by the London Community Foundation. So far, our joint appeal with Comic Relief has raised over £2.3 million.

During her visit, the Marchioness saw first-hand how the charity changes lives and said that it left her speechless. Baking focaccia with Sonny, who went through the foundation's flagship programme, Fresh Life, she listened keenly. Sonny was only 16 when he thought he might be going to jail: he had twice been caught carrying a knife. Raised by a single mother in Bethnal Green, he had fallen in with the wrong crowd. "Without Brigade," Sonny told me, "I'd be banged up." He is 17 and a different person to the boy who walked through the doors of the restaurant on Tooley Street this year. "I used to have my hands in my pockets, looking down and not taking in anything that was said," he said.