The Students’ Union (SU) has unanimously voted to support the Cambridge Community Kitchen (CCK), after the county’s mayor, Paul Bristow, urged the city council to review its powers to relocate the kitchen.

The CCK, operating out of a squat called the Lockon on Fair Street, is a food solidarity collective serving free hot meals to those who need them three times a week.

Bristow, the Conservative mayor for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, told the city council in November that he had received complaints from residents about the Lockon.

In his letter, Bristow urged the council “to address the ongoing occupation of this historic building and its future, and to consider how the community support being provided might be sustained in a lawful and safe setting”.

At a student council meeting last Monday (26/01), 21 members of the SU resolved “to lobby city officials to preserve CCK by preserving the Lockon” and “to lobby the University to recognise the value of CCK for its students”.

The motion also pledged “to work with the Lockon to ensure the preservation of the CCK,” noting that the “CCK is only able to exist because it is run from a squat”.

Responding to the results of the vote, Augustin Dennis, proposer of the motion and postgraduate president of the SU, commented: “I am of course very pleased, although unsurprised, that support for this motion was unanimous, as it shows very clearly that any attack on CCK will be met with strong resistance from the student body. Students in Cambridge, more than ever, know the meaning of solidarity, not least thanks to the efforts of CCK to teach us ‘solidarity not charity’. Now is the time to get involved!”

They referred to the CCK as “one of the most radiant and successful examples of sustained town and gown solidarity, absolutely rooted in a community network that involves the totality of the Cambridge population, providing 600 hot meals a week to anyone who asks for the past five years,” and supporting student campaigners by “providing a place to meet or hot meals to gather around when protesting in the cold”.

Dennis continued: “Cambridge students have invested immense amounts of time and energy along with Cambridge residents to help make this resource available to anyone in need, a need that has unfortunately increased due to the current cost-of-living crisis, including of course for students themselves.”

The resolution has also received approval from student volunteers at the kitchen, with one saying: “Being part of the CCK community has enriched my experience as a student an inestimable amount. It’s allowed me to engage with the city as a whole, put down roots here behind the university, do something which goes beyond me and helps me put things in perspective, and has showed me what I want to do with the rest of my life in a way that has opened a lot of doors for me.”

Another student added: “I truly love volunteering at CCK as the community is so kind and welcoming – and the Lockon only helps with that atmosphere. It is a wonderful building. So I am very pleased that the student union has voted in favour of protecting the Lockon”.

The CCK told Varsity: “We welcome the recognition of the many ways in which students benefit from CCK’s presence, and we hope this will encourage more students to support our cause and, more broadly, to step out of the Cambridge bubble and engage with the wider community.”

In the same meeting, the SU voted by 16 votes to one (plus one abstention) to dedicate £600 of the Council Free Budget – the portion of the SU’s budget reserved for miscellaneous projects – to an upcoming Decolonisation Conference.

The motion, proposed by Vice-President (Liberation and Welfare) Melanie Benedict, notes that the SU’s decolonisation efforts are supposed to receive a minimum budget of £500 each year. While Benedict has obtained money for the next academic year, their predecessor failed to gain funding for 2025/26.

The £600 will go towards inviting speakers and providing refreshments for the SU’s second free Decolonisation Conference, following its debut last year. The motion said the aim was “to collaborate with students, academics and with external organisations like the Black Curriculum to stimulate discussion and direction towards effective and tangible decolonial practise at Cambridge SU and Cambridge University”.

The building now known as the Lockon was formerly the Hobpine pub, built in the 1830s. The establishment was closed in 2019, following a dispute between the owner and landlady, with squatters moving in just before the first lockdown in March 2020.

Last year, the CCK received a hygiene rating of four out of five following an inspection.

In November, the city council responded to Bristow’s letter by saying its powers were “limited” but that “where we have appropriate powers, we have taken action”.

The council continued: “The owner and occupiers of the premises have not been willing to enter a dialogue with us or the local community. However, we had been informed that the owner/landlord had taken legal advice in order to initiate proceedings to take back possession of the property.”

All relevant parties were contacted for comment.