Caring for the community

Heroes on and off the pitch

Marine FC’s cup-tie with Premier League highfliers Tottenham Hotspur threw the spotlight on the Mersey minnows. WILL RAYMENT reports on how they are putting their moment in the sun to good use

Amemorable FA Cup underdog story in Merseyside has provided much-needed help to the Crosby community.

Marine in the Community (MITC) is a charity organisation with links to Marine AFC, who reached the third round of the FA Cup to face Premier League outfit Tottenham Hotspur.

The charity has been busy during lockdown, offering a range of skills and services to many different target groups.

The organisation has already provided free lunches, quizzes and local information from Sefton Council to vulnerable people who may be shielding and unable to leave their homes amidst the Covid pandemic.

This has been done in partnership with Radfield Home Care who also offer a friendly chat and a chance to share any concerns or worries.

Its close ties with the football club has been a real boost to the community of Crosby.

For example, the director of Marine in the Community, Graeme Gardiner, is also on the committee of the football club.

Tom Clarke, who works for both the football club and the community, said: “The Club support the community work incredibly.

“The FA Cup run has been extremely beneficial, as part of the virtual tickets campaign was an option to donate to MITC, which raised thousands of pounds for the charity.

“This money will go towards a fund to purchase a minibus to help our community, which we are raising money for via a JustGiving page.”

The minibus will provide travel for the vulnerable in the area as well as transport for the local schools they work with.

The non-league club, with the aid of Tottenham fans all around the country, sold more than 32,000 virtual tickets for the Third-Round clash, breaking the Marine Travel Arena’s attendance record.

The FA Cup tie was broadcast on BBC One, with the Northern Premier League North West Division side finally dropping out the competition, losing 5-0 to one of Europe’s elite footballing sides.

The club decided to set up a virtual ticket scheme as due to lockdown measures, fans were unable attend the biggest game in the club’s history, which would’ve provided beneficial income for Marine AFC.

Marine in the Community have recently set up free Zoom lessons aimed at older people in the area to stay in touch with their families and friends.

Tom, the social media manager for Marine, said: “We will offer roundthe-clock support if people are having issues as well as weekly tuition sessions with myself and first-team player Mike Howard.

“We also offer coaching for firstteam players to local schools, and we have weekly Walking Football sessions for older people on the pitch at the Marine Travel Arena, as well as our Walking Group which encourages people to stay active and socialising.”

Mr Clarke says the atmosphere of the group is refreshing and valuable: “I find the community work extremely engaging, helping our vulnerable people and putting a smile on their faces is priceless, and makes all of our hard work more than worth it.

“In a time like this, people rely on community even more and we have made sure we are there as much as possible to provide support whenever people need it.

“The next step is to help people come out of the pandemic in a healthy, safe and sociable way.”

GOOD WORKS: How the club is using its resources to reach out and help the community

Sophie’s baking choice

By LAUREN HUGHES

Home baking is a source of enjoyment for many, but for Sophie Cook of ‘Sophie’s Kitchen Liverpool’ it is much more.

After working in HR (Human Resources) for a sales and technology company for the past three years supporting other businesses, she decided to start her own - a home baking delivery service, delivering baked goods right to people’s doors during the pandemic.

“This is something I thoroughly enjoy,” said Sophie.

“I love working with businesses and supporting them. I think this will definitely help me as I start to grow my own business. Baking is something I’m really passionate about.”

According to Sophie her company has been a long time in the making but she says it’s important you do things for the right reasons and never felt ready until now.

“I’ve been baking for about five years. I started to teach myself to bake when I had depression and an eating disorder. I’d never baked before then. I didn’t really know what to do with myself, so I just baked obsessively.

Part of my illness was OCD, which I used to my advantage. I’d copy every recipe to an absolute T, and everything came out right! I think baking can be such a fantastic form of therapy and I’d highly recommend giving it a go!”

Her family and friends have been the main recipients of her baked goods over the years.

She added: “I am honestly surprised none of them have diabetes yet.”

Alongside starting her business, Sophie is also setting about doing different things to raise money for mental health charities, to support people who are in the same boat.

“I was really fortunate and got better but baking is something I held onto,” she said.

When asked what the inspiration behind the name was, Sophie said she wanted something simple, easy to remember and something that would look good on a logo.

Sophie is currently working on a long list of brownies and cakes for her new menu, which you can order through her Instagram @ Sophieskitchenliverpoool or Etsy account.

Keep an eye out for her website, which is coming soon.

In the meantime, why not try one of Sophie’s most loved recipes, Jammy Dodger Blondies, with this recipe (right). Don’t forget to share and tag her to show her your triumphs.

Sophie gets baking. Pictures © Sophie Cook

Sophie’s Jammy Dodger Blondies

Ingredients

200g Unsalted butter (melted) 125g White granulated sugar 125g light brown sugar 3 medium eggs 1tsp vanilla extract 275g plain flour 1tbsp cornflour 150g jam (melted) A mix of Jammie Dodgers and mini Dodgers

Method

1.Preheat your oven at 180c/160c fan and line a 9x9” square tin with parchment paper. Bakers tips: It’s so important you use the right sized tin! Also, I’d recommend using an aluminium tin sprayed with light fry instead of using parchment paper. 2.Melt your butter and then add your sugars. Mix them until they’re full combined. When it’s mixed properly you will notice the mixture go lighter. It can take about 5 minutes to get to this point. 3.Beat your eggs and then add them into your sugar/butter mix, then add your vanilla. 4.Add in your flour and cornflour and mix. Be careful not to over mix. I just use a spatula to do this, but you can use a fork or spoon or whatever! 5.Fold in your white chocolate chips (again don’t overmix this), then pour the mixture into your tin and spread evenly. 6.You can spoon on little blobs of jam and swirl it in (using a knife or cocktail stick) but I prefer to heat up my jam for a few seconds in a bowl in the microwave and the pipe it onto my blondie mix. 7.Add your Jammie Dodgers on top and press them gently down. 8.Stick them in the oven for 25-30 minutes. I tend to check them and keep a close eye on them at about 20+ minutes as all over temperatures can differ. When you take them out of the oven the edges should look done but the middle but may have a bit of a wobble to it (that’s where the gooeyness of brownies come from so don’t risk overbaking them.) 9.Leave them to cool in the tin. (I leave them to cool in the tin and then leave them in the fridge for a few hours/overnight as this gets them to set perfectly! Definitely worth the wait)

The cuisine of L15

Student chefs Nick Grant and Felix Parkes in their kitchen and a selection of their tasty dishes, below

BY CHARLIE BAKER MULLINGS

Two University of Liverpool have started their own food delivery service promoted on social media from the kitchen in their rented accommodation.

Philosophy undergraduate Nicholas Grant, better known to many as Nick, has always been an impassioned cook and as of the first lockdown in April last year, has been posting his eye-catching meals on his Instagram account @nick_chefs.

As the page began to increase in popularity and followers, the West Londoner decided that he wanted to take the next step and share his food with his friends and the wider Wavertree community. With the help of his housemate, Geography student Felix Parkes, the two 21-year-olds created L15 Cuisine.

Speaking exclusively to Liverpool Life, Nick said: “We started this delivery service purely for the fun of cooking. Making a bit of extra cash every week definitely helps pay the bills, but we both just enjoy cooking different cuisines from around the world and wanted to share that with whoever is interested.”

With the service currently running once a week, Nick and Felix have already managed to cover the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East since the start of January.

“I feel like what makes us unique is the fact that customers get something new every week Different flavours, textures, techniques – the hope is that we’ll never get boring because we’re always trying to do something that isn’t typically accessible in the Wavertree area.

“Plus, at £5 per box with no delivery fee, we’re significantly cheaper than the vast majority of food delivery services you’ll find on UberEats or Deliveroo too.”

Each week, the ingredients are sourced from local food stores and the meals are always prepared and cooked fresh on the day of delivery.

So far, the service is only available by Instagram direct message, but the benefit of this is that every customer gets to communicate with the men behind the food, offering a more personal experience as well as the opportunity for customers to make suggestions directly to the chefs as to what kinds of dishes they would like to see in the future.

Both Nick and Felix are third year students, meaning that they’ll be in the process of writing their dissertations and finishing university by the summer.

Balancing the workload could be prove to be difficult, but Nick insists that he and Felix are only just getting started.

“We’ve got loads more ideas, and we’re going to start a separate page purely for the delivery service very soon. Once we’ve got that all sorted out, we’ll be able to ramp up production and hopefully start reaching more customers. We just want to keep bringing people something delicious, convenient and always at a good price.”

“We just want to keep bringing people something delicious, convenient and always at a good price”