A Newcastle social enterprise is launching free cookery sessions to help people across the city who are at risk of suffering from food poverty, or who are accessing food banks, by showing them how to create nutritious meals. Food Nation, based in Byker, is introducing ‘Food Nation does Smart Food’ – a six-week course to show individuals and families how to cook healthy, creative dishes with the foods that they have access to. The organisation is working with Newcastle East Food Bank, Newcastle West Food Bank, Storehouse at the Tyneside Vineyard, Connect 25 and Walking with Wallsend People’s Centre to run the free course, which will be available at a range of venues in the city. The course will be split into six weekly sessions and will cover nutrition education, practical cookery, small scale food growing, portion size guidance, food storage, waste reduction, shopping skills, budgeting and meal planning. Participants will be taught a range of recipes based on the foods they most commonly receive from food banks, such as tinned tomatoes, tinned fruit, dried rice, pasta and oats. Food Nation aims to work with 560 people during the next three years, as the demand for food banks continues to rise in the North East. Joanna Lacey, enterprise development manager at Food Nation, said: “There’s no doubt that food poverty is a growing issue in our area, and it can be a struggle for people to find ways to eat healthily with limited ingredients. “At Food Nation we believe that everybody should have access to good food, which is why we’ve devised this free course to show anyone experiencing food poverty how to build their cooking knowledge, improve their skills, and to instil confidence in them to create well-balanced meals from food bank supplies. “We believe that through inspiring people to understand more about food, and what to do with it, this will bring about long term positive effects on their lifestyle, health and wellbeing, and will encourage them to make good food choices for themselves and their families.” For more information about Food Nation does Smart Food, visit www.foodnation.org or call 0191 276 0595.
