Derby’s Penguin PR agency steps up to the hotplate as its staff lay on lunch for the community

Derby’s Penguin PR agency steps up to the hotplate as its staff lay on lunch for the community

Staff at a leading Derby PR agency, who are used to cooking up a media storm, swapped their pens for pinnies when they volunteered to cook for more than 70 people at a city charity’s community lunch.

The four members of Penguin PR spent the day chopping, boiling and baking, after the agency, based in Ashbourne Road, agreed to prepare the YMCA Derbyshire’s monthly free lunch event last week.

YMCA Derbyshire, in London Road, has joined forces with Derby mental health charity Head High to provide the community lunch every month and invites local businesses and organisations to get involved.

Last month (November) it was the turn of Penguin PR directors Sarah Newton and Simon Burch, along with the company’s social media manager Kerry Ganly and Sasha Gomes, to answer the call, cooking and serving chilli con carne with rice followed by freshly baked chocolate brownies.

They were helped in the kitchen by three students from Derby’s Transition 2 college, in Whitaker Road, while Head High’s founder and the Conservative candidate for Derby North, Amanda Solloway, turned up to help serve the meal, assisted by fellow prospective parliamentary candidate and former housing minister Esther McVey.

Sarah Newton, a director at Penguin PR, said: “It’s fair to say that each of us has varying degrees of expertise when it comes to cooking, but we enjoyed working together to prepare our meal.

“People came back to ask for more, so the food seemed to go down well.

“We’d recommend the experience to other businesses as it’s great for team bonding and personal development, while it also puts something back into the community.”

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