Sinéad Browne: I’m on a personal mission to make charity SEXY.
Founder and CEO of Compliments of The House; Champion of community solutions; Grassroots Organisations Advisor; “Sarf” East Londoner.
To break through stigmatising attitudes and experiences where people feel ashamed to accept what they see as a “hand-out” or surplus food that they see as “already used. For me, charity is akin to community; strong, resourceful, and vibrant. But how we approach communal services and spaces needs a reset. There’s opportunity for a new generation to bring energy, creativity, green-thinking, and technology to do things differently and design for dignity. That, and my own personal experiences, compelled me to start Compliments of The House.
I want to be one of many new voices with lived, empathetic experience turning their challenges into solutions from within the community rather than watch outside influences, who haven’t walked one step in the shoes of those they purport to help - much less one mile, weigh in.
I’m all for shaking up stuffy structures and narratives. Throughout my thirty-odd life so far, I’ve challenged the limiting labels attached to being black, female, in and out of foster care, homeless and food insecure at sixteen.
I do it from a belief that the world is full of opportunity and I want everyone to access it and use that access to their full potential. Sometimes it’s about getting into the building, let alone leaning in at the table!
If you’ve ever been underestimated or faced a cloud of doubt, then I say let’s prove them wrong together. Because my vision is bigger than my 5ft 2’ height.
I bring compassion, bags of energy, passion, and justice to everything I do. And I want to be myself doing it.
If you’re interested please check out my bio and come, share this exciting journey with me.
All the hugs
x Sinéad x
As seen in:
Champion
Celebrating black brilliance
Reflecting on her own journey, Sinéad wants to support the black community to access platforms that are usually reserved for white voices, and to encourage younger, black generations to bring out and recognise their brilliance while regularly having to contend with tense, hostile, and unwelcoming surroundings and situations.
“When I first started using the service (CoTH), I had little to no food at home due to financial circumstances. Getting to know Sinéad and becoming a volunteer helped boost my confidence and make me wan to be more productive again.” CoTH Guest
Giving care leavers a voice
Knowing how the statistics are stacked against young care leavers, Sinéad has devised a programme that helps and supports them into further education and employment.
The programme provides independent living support and upskilling workshops to help them develop and realise their potential whilst building a network of useful contacts. Sinéad wants to elevate care leaver voices while campaigning to improve local authority and private organisational practice.
“There is a big homelessness problem in Brixton and Sinéad has a great energy. She wants to help.”
Federation Coffee, food partner of CoTH
Making the homeless visible
Sinéad knows that homelessness comes in many forms and that things are rarely just black and white. She’s supporting those living on the street, living in unsuitable accommodation and couch surfing.
After her own experience, thrust out of care aged sixteen into temporary accommodation for the homeless leaving her to fend for herself, Sinéad understands the importance of solutions that are rooted in the realities of different situations. Sinéad’s advocating to transform policy for positive change, shining a light on differing types of homelessness and putting dignity at the core of people’s experience.
“We decided to work with Compliments of The House upon meeting Sinéad. Her passion and energy resonated with our own ambitions to help feed those in need.”
Share a Slice, food partner of CoTH
Eating disorders
Having struggled with an eating disorder for over 15 years and now being in recovery from Bulimia she is able to share her experience on living and struggling with it whilst having a successful professional career.
Sinéad is able to talk about her experience of hospitalisation and day care and the effect it had on her day to day life as well as her experience of being a black woman with an eating disorder and the struggle that comes with that, as they are often not recognised, addressed or talked about openly in black communities.
Sinéad will share how she finally recognised her eating disorder was a conduit for her trauma and how by acknowledging that she was finally able to build a healthier relationship with food.
Food waste
People viewing cooked food as ‘already used’, meaning that if it isn't purchased by the end of the day then it should be discarded, both confuses and appalls Sinéad. As a care leaver who grew up experiencing food poverty and hunger first-hand she understands the importance in not wasting a single meal.
CoTH doesn’t operate like a soup kitchen because Sinéad doesn’t see the need in cooking more food when there is already so much fresh and nutritious food ready to go to those in need. Fighting both hunger and environmental damage in one step, Sinéad is taking this under utilised and untapped food resource to help nourish and feed thousands of people.
Charity consultancy
Sinéad has first hand experience as a hands on CEO in tackling those challenges that many small organisations face, building grassroots movements from the ground up.
She understands that making a positive difference isn’t easy. Whether you’re a charity or funder, social enterprise or philanthropist, Sinéad can work collaboratively with you to:
Understand your cause and develop a strategy to achieve your mission
Manage and measure your impact
Refine your grant-making to enhance your philanthric impact
Become a socially responsible investor by making impactful social investments
Use data to measure impact and help achieve your mission
Risk assess and develop potential partnerships
Engage and involve users in designing your services and developing your strategy
Advice on how to improve your brand and grow your grassroots organisation and take it to the next level.
‘Sinéad is a blast and creates a fun, uplifting atmosphere for both guests and volunteers’
Evening Standard’s ‘Charities to volunteer for in London’ Jan 2020
Stirring speeches
Motivational Speaker
With her inspirational story and straight-talking approach, insightful experience and advice, Sinéad is set to be one of the charity’s world’s most sought-after speakers on subjects ranging from Eating Disorders to Trauma to Redistributing food.
Sinéad has delivered speeches close to her heart, drawing on her experiences for The National Fostering Agency and The Centre for Child Mental Health leaving audiences inspired and motivated.
Topics include:
How to learn from past struggles and trauma
How to turn a struggling charity into a powerful movement
The top ten key ingredients you need to be a successful CEO
Living with and recovering from an eating disorder
Life before, during and after foster care
Food waste and Food redistribution
Being black, proud and LOUD
‘Sinéad Browne - voted one of the Top 10 women in London making a difference’
Evening Standard’s International Women’s Day March 2020
Compliments of The house
“Compliments of The House has provided a huge service to the local community, not only by feeding
those in need but also by making them feel welcomed and human”
Compliments of The House Guest, anonymous
Sinéad knows first-hand the negative connotations, stigma and shame associated with food charity handouts. A stigma that stops some people with food insecurity from even seeking help. She set up Compliments of The House (CoTH) to change that, purposefully choosing a name that evokes the friendly and generous spirit of hospitality rather than charity.
CoTH is on a mission to make the hungry feel human, nourishing people in the community with food and through food. Sinéad and the volunteer team collect surplus food from over forty wonderful local restaurants, cafes, market stalls and other food partners in Brixton, where, at CoTH’s nearby hub, it’s freely redistributed and re-sorted into starters, mains, and desserts.
There everyone is a welcomed guest as long as they are in need.
Brixton is just the beginning and CoTH has ambition to set up permanent hubs in different local communities to provide a safe, creative, and vibrant space where people can eat food there or take it away.
While Sinéad doesn’t deny the need for long-term solutions that tackle the roots of food poverty, she knows how worrying where your next meal is coming from can overshadow everything. Sinéad wants to help people in the same situation that she was once in, to take away one less worry from their day. And while good food is available that would otherwise go to waste, Sinéad is passionate about the community resourcefully and sustainably supporting others.
She’s also a big believer in hand-ups not hand-outs. Food is a nourishing start point but it doesn’t stop there. CoTH offers practical support where guests can volunteer and train as part of a back-to-work scheme. The qualifications gained equip them to work full or part-time with some of CoTH’s food partners.
Launched in 2018, CoTH has fed over 2000 guests, saved over 7000kg of food from going to waste and partnered with over 40 local food businesses. When lockdown in early 2020 forced the closure of the CoTH hub, local food banks and other emergency food provision , Sinéad and the team were determined not to let guests down. Within a week, working with Lambeth Council, they set up an emergency delivery service bringing food and reassurance to families, elderly people, and previous regular guests. Even offering specialised parcels, tailored to individual cultural and health needs to provide people with dignity and reassurance in anxious times.
Letter from PM, Boris Johnson, awarding Sinéad as a Points of Light in June 2020:
I was so inspired to learn of the way you are collecting surplus donations from restaurants closed during lockdown and delivering them to those in need across South London.
It is a fantastic example of the kindness and compassion that has united and defined our communities throughout this battle with Coronavirus.
I applaud, too, the restaurants which have contributed at this difficult time,giving true meaning to the ingenious name of your charity by offering the “Compliments of the house!”
“So allow me to offer you, and everyone involved, the compliments of the country!”