Deputy Lieutenant Visits The Sandwell Colleges For FE Big Lunch

The Sandwell Colleges were honoured by a visit from His Majesty The King’s representative, the Deputy Lieutenant Abbie Vlahakis, as they proudly hosted the FE Big Lunch to celebrate community partners.

Residents and staff from employer partner Moundsley Hall Care Village were among the guests treated to the special lunch at Cadbury Sixth Form College – one of The Sandwell Colleges – which involved delicious lemon drizzle and cheesecakes made by students from Sandwell College’s own Cooking Club.

Students from across the colleges, including T Level Health learners who work at Moundsley Hall on placement, looked after the residents and fellow guests representing partner charities and organisations including St Basils, Kings Heath Community Centre, Space to Grow, The Sweet Project, Umbrella and West Midlands Police.

Cooking Club students were awarded with certificates by the Deputy Lieutenant for their culinary efforts, and for producing a commemorative book of their recipes to mark the occasion.

This significant moment was a chance to give back and embrace community spirit, with friendship, food and fun and also formed part of Volunteers’ Week and the Month of Community.

CEO & Principal of The Sandwell Colleges, Lisa Capper MBE, said: “We were honoured to welcome Deputy Lieutenant Abbie Vlahakis to our FE Big Lunch, recognising the invaluable contributions of our community partners and dedicated students. This occasion was testament to our commitment to fostering community connection and celebrating the powerful partnerships and collaboration across our colleges.”

The FE Big Lunch project was launched by the West Midlands Lieutenancy to coincide with The King’s Coronation, and is now bigger and better than ever.

This was the second visit by West Midlands Lieutenancy to The Sandwell Colleges in recent months.

Deputy Lieutenant Gurpreet Bhatia was also a special guest when students and colleagues gathered at Sandwell College to mark Armistice Day.

The student-led event began with uniformed Public Services students from The Sandwell Colleges leading a remembrance parade through the college to commemorate the memory of fallen soldiers.

The Sandwell Colleges were recently honoured with the highly prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in recognition of their pioneering project on work experience for young people and their partnership with hydraPower dynamics.

The accolade celebrates the impressive impact of the Colleges’ ground-breaking collaboration with the global leader in hose and tube manufacturing solutions, and their jointly developed programme ‘Go Further’ which is transforming opportunities for young people and strengthening the region’s engineering talent pipeline.