At Smile Together, we’re passionate about tackling oral health inequality and making a tangible difference in the communities we serve. Our mission goes beyond the dental chair – and as the ongoing cost-of-living crisis continues to impact families across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, we’re stepping up our support where it’s needed most.
Building on last year’s initiative, we’re proud to be donating £750 each to 11 local foodbanks and community groups, as demand for these essential services continues to grow:
- Bude Foodbank
- Penzance Food for Families
- Bodmin Way Community Larder
- Rame Peninsula Trust
- Camelford Old Bank Community Larder
- Coachhouse Food Hub, Tintagel
- Cornwall Community Foundation
- Camborne, Pool and Redruth (CPR) Foodbank
- Penzance Growing Links
- Trelya Penzance
- Re-Make Cornwall
These organisations do vital work supporting individuals and families across Cornwall. We’re pleased to be working alongside them once again and to contribute in a way that supports their continued impact.
Additional Support for The Lescudjack Café
Located within the same building as our Penzance dental practice, The Café at the Lescudjack Centre is an inspiring community hub offering free hot meals to those in need. The café operates a “pay it forward” scheme, encouraging customers to donate what they can to help others – but with demand consistently high, additional support is often needed to meet the growing need.
We’re incredibly proud to be supporting them with a £3,600 donation to cover meals for the 2024/25 year, and we’ve also committed to a £300 monthly donation throughout 2025/26 – a total of £7,200 over two years. With meals averaging £6 each, that’s funding for around 1,200 meals, making a real difference to individuals and families navigating tough times.
The café currently provides about 50 free meals each month, often to individuals and families referred by health professionals. Demand is sadly higher than ever, especially post-Christmas and during times of unexpected financial pressure.
This café is not only a warm, welcoming space, but also works closely with local foodbanks and redistributes excess food stock to prevent waste – a truly community-focused, sustainable solution we’re proud to support. If any of our patients are in need of a little help, this is a safe and supportive place we can signpost them to.
Oral Health Essentials for Those Most in Need
We’re continuing to provide oral health packs and supplies to local foodbanks and charities, helping ensure people have access to basic items that support their oral health and wellbeing. Over the last two months, we’ve donated thousands of tubes of toothpastes:
- 576 to Dentaid
- 576 to CPR Foodbank
- 576 to Camelford Old Bank Community Larder
- 576 to Food for Families
- 960 to Bodmin Way Community Larder
These donations form part of our broader community engagement, as we work to remove barriers to oral health and support better wellbeing for all.
The response to our donations was utterly heartwarming and included:
“On behalf of all of us at The Coachhouse Food Hub, we would like to say a very heartfelt Thank You for the kind donation of £750.00. This is a very welcome boost which will sustain purchases of food and essentials for the people we support weekly.” The Coachhouse Food Hub
“That’s very generous and very welcomed by Trelya.” Treyla
“Thank you so much for your kind donation.” CPR Foodbank
“This is amazing and we can’t thank you enough… an emergency food bag costs us about £20 per family to put together and we average 4 people per household. With this donation we can help a lot of people!” Camelford Old Bank Community Larder
“Thank you so very much for your continued support, we really appreciate it.” Growing Links
“We wanted to say a huge thank you to Smile Together for their £750 donation to our community larder! Your donation will keep the larder stocked for 3 months alongside our FareShare deliveries. Donations like these are vital to keeping our services running.” Rame Peninsula Trust
Looking Ahead
As we continue to respond to the needs in our communities, we’re also excited to share that we’re also supporting The Pasty Box – a Cornwall-based community interest company helping local children and families through cooking education and healthy food access.
Founded by proud Cornishmen Fergus Muller, Lewis Groom, and Adam Anderson, The Pasty Box works closely with schools and communities to deliver cooking sessions, confidence-building experiences, and ingredient boxes designed to bring families together in the kitchen.
We can’t wait to share more about this inspiring project soon — watch this space!
At Smile Together, we believe that healthcare and compassion go hand in hand. Whether it’s through delivering urgent dental care or supporting the wellbeing of our neighbours through community partnerships, we’re committed to making a difference – one smile at a time.
