Meet Team Larder
Kay Johnson MBE
Kay is the Larders founder, and has worked for more than 20 years as a nutritionist managing food poverty initiatives nationally and overseas; she spent a brief spell as a chef and was brought up on a small farm in Lancashire.
Kay believes in Food Fairness For All and is currently doing a PhD which explores how fresh local produce can be made affordable to people on low incomes without farmers, producers, animals and the environment bearing the cost.
In 2015 Kay set up the Larder and based her work in Preston – The Larders Timeline
Ruby Henderson
Ruby initially joined Team Larder as a volunteer in March 2020, she now co-ordinates all our Cooking For Our Community meal deliveries as well as working as the Larders volunteer coordinator.
A proud Lancashire lass with experience working in mental health and the charity sectors, she is passionate about social issues and affecting change on a local level. Ruby has a keen interest in the correlation between good nutrition and improving mental wellbeing.
Nik Prescott
Nik is a trained chef, who started volunteering with the Larder when we started our Cooking For Our Community meals in April 2020.
Nik gained his chef qualification in Preston, and then moved to London to train with top chefs who had a passion for local produce before bringing his knowledge and skills back to his Preston home.
Take a look at our Kids In The Kitchen videos where Nik enjoys sharing his cooking skills with our local families.
Charlie Clutterbuck
Charlie has been on the board of The Larder since 2015
He has worked in many parts of the food chain from picking hops, working in kitchens and living on a hill farm. He has advised several major food retailers and was an active member of Unite’s Rural and Agricultural workers for many years, as well as an Honorary Fellow in Food Policy at City University London.
He has published extensively on food and farming and is the author of Bittersweet Brexit: Land, Labour and Food After Brexit (Pluto, 2017).
Leah Milburn
Leah began volunteering with The Larder in June 2019.
She is currently studying BSc Nutritional Sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University with a strong interest to pursue a career in nutrition. Leah is particularly interested in childhood nutrition.
In her spare time, she enjoys adapting recipes and cooks nutritious meals for her family. Leah enjoys listening to podcasts about nutrition, exercise, wellbeing and sustainability.
Leah is part of the Food Foundations Peas Please Veg Advocate programme.
Chryssa Malfa-Erguvan
Chryssa joined the Larder in March 2018. She grew up in Greece, where her grandparents were farmers and her father was a chef. She achieved qualifications in economics while pursuing a career in hospitality and catering.
Alison Watts
Alison has been with The Larder since 2015, following seven years as a Community Nutrition Officer at Preston City Council. Her years in health and nutrition have included advising breastfeeding mums and running an independent health food shop.
Although Alison now says she has retired, we still consider her a massive part of Team Larder
Rachel Wheble
Rachel joined the Larder in October 2018. She grew up on a 400 acre farm in Lancashire, and is passionate about food and farming.
Rachel has extensive experience within community development, emergency food provision, local food initiatives, and social prescribing
Rachel is part of the Food Foundations Peas Please Veg Advocate programme.
Victoria Dyer
Victoria volunteers with the Larder and as well as running the popular knitting group, she is the curator of Art @ the Larder where our cafe’s windows host local artists work throughout the year.
Victoria has innovative ideas on displaying art and making it accessible to everyone, in March 2020 she developed Preston’s first outward facing art exhibition using the Larders windows to bring art to the streets of Preston.
Take a look at our Kids In The Kitchen videos where she enjoys sharing her love of cooking with our local families.
Sarah Philipson
Sarah joined the Larder in September 2018 to mastermind the new Food Academy.
The Academy offers accredited and non accredited courses, workshops and bespoke masterclasses.
Sarah knows how to design and develop training programmes after 15 years at education giant Pearson.
She has a Masters degree from Lancaster University in food and the environment.
Jacqui Shurr
Since 2018 Jacqui has been one of The Larder’s Food Champions and more recently has become a Veg Advocate through The Food Foundation’s Peas Please programme, a platform Jacqui aims to use to help deliver affordable fresh food in our local community. You can see Jacqui in The Larder’s Kids in the Kitchen and she really enjoys helping at live events such as The Larder’s Feast for Peace
Jacqui is a food anthropologist whose research and volunteering leads her to deliver food & cooking inspired projects with Preston’s refugee and asylum seeker community & women’s groups. Jacqui passionately believes that communal cooking and eating initiatives can build bridges and open up the possibility for better food and healthy eating for more families in our community.