Member Article

Newcastle groups scoop £10,000 to kick off cooking schemes

Community groups, schools, businesses and churches across the city are set to cook up a storm after securing funding to launch a spread of food activities.

The Community Food Grant 2014 Fund, which is managed by Byker-based social enterprise Food Nation, has awarded £10,000 to eight cooking and growing projects in Newcastle, in a bid to inspire local residents to cook affordable, healthy food from scratch.

The fund, which was launched ten years ago and is financed through Newcastle City Council Public Health, will serve all ages - from toddlers to retirees, to help them learn more about where their food comes from.

Each project will be receiving ongoing support from the Food Nation team over the course of the year.

Nicola Cowell, community food initiative coordinator at Food Nation, said: “The standard of applications this year was very high and the Community Food Grant panel has been hugely impressed by the range of ideas put forward from around the city.

“A really diverse spread of projects will be brought to life through this year’s round of funding, helping toddlers, young children, teenagers, families and elderly residents, so we can’t wait to see everyone get started.

“We’ve already held an introductory workshop for the project coordinators at our cooking centre. This was a great way of bringing everyone together in a fun, informal way, and discussing how they would measure the results of their projects. In previous years, the coordinators have stayed in touch and worked together on other food schemes further down the line, which is always great to see.”

One of the winning projects is the West End-based Search Project, which is developing a Mediterranean cooking club for the over 50s, to highlight the benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Participants will have the opportunity to build their skills and confidence, socialise, and have fun together by cooking healthy, affordable food.

St Margaret’s Toddlers, within St Margaret’s Church at Scotswood Road, aim to bring about a change in diet for parents and children under five, by showing them how to grow and cook healthy meals. This will include the development the church garden, because few families in the surrounding area have gardens of their own. The project is supported and part funded by HWN and Sure Start West Riverside.

Atkinson Road Nursery School in Benwell is creating a Veg Box Challenge. Parents will be invited to sessions to learn about shopping for and preparing seasonal, low-cost fruit and vegetables, and they will cook dishes together - such as stew, pasta sauces and soups. A cookbook with costs and images will also be produced – with a bi-lingual version, as many parents will be Czech Roma. Meanwhile, the parents’ children will be exploring different fruit and vegetables within the classroom and will make and eat one of the recipes together. A vegetable planting day will also be held, showing parents and children how they can grow fruit and vegetables at home on a small scale.

The Community Catering Initiative Ltd, based in Pottery Bank Community Centre, Walker, is launching The Kitchen Table – a family cooking and growing programme which will aim to improve families’ cooking skills, food choices and lifestyle knowledge. Two four-week cookery programmes will be delivered, through which adults will grow and prepare fresh ingredients and cook a balanced family meal that can be created on a budget. This food will be taken home for families to enjoy around their Kitchen Table. Participants will be given a folder of recipes they have created, and will take seedlings/plants home to grow their own produce.

The Byker Centre and Groundwork will run a partnership project called Let’s Get Cooking – as part of a national healthy eating programme. The scheme will provide a series of two hour cooking workshops where families on the nearby estates can gain practical skills in food preparation and safety, and gain confidence in trying new recipes. Sessions will encourage families to learn to cook together, preparing and eating some of the produce grown at the Byker Centre during practical gardening sessions and informal volunteering opportunities.

West End Youth Enquiry Service (WEYES) will show young people, aged 11-25, how to feed themselves healthily for under £15 a week, by teaching them budgeting and cooking skills as part of three five-week courses run in partnership with Barnardo’s, The Foyer and Outpost.

Welbeck Primary School will develop its Family Cooking and Growing Group, by building on the school’s previous involvement with Food Nation’s North East Discovery Project. Families will attend growing and cooking skills training, will become ambassadors by sharing their learning with other parents and children, and will set up a school garden so that food can be grown within the grounds.

Newcastle-based charity JET will deliver a Cook and Shop to Eat Well project at Palatine Beds in Westerhope, where 74 per cent of the staff have a disability. A café will be developed within the factory, and cooking skills workshops will be held to develop the cooking skills of the workforce and improve their health and wellbeing.

For further information about any of the winning projects, and to find out how to get involved, call Nicola Cowell at Food Nation on 0191 276 0595 or email nicola@foodnation.org

For more information about Food Nation, visit www.foodnation.org

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Food Nation .