Cookery Programmes

Catering and cookery skills

Our discussions with young people found that they have a strong desire to learn cookery skills. It is an ideal way to develop practical skills as well as literacy and numeracy.
The demand for our cookery projects has expanded and over the past year we have run programmes aimed at three age ranges:

- 8-11 year-olds (Little Chefs);

- 12-19 year-olds; and

- 16-25 year-olds (supported housing tenants).

 We also have several new projects working with a local children’s home, the local Primary Care Trust and nearby schools.
The main objective of all our cookery projects is to deliver healthy eating cookery classes that encourage young people to make better lifestyle choices and to gain independence. Our projects are successful for a simple reason – young people enjoy them.
The twice-weekly Outreach Cooking Sessions have been a phenomenal success and are very popular with our supported housing tenants. The sessions take place in their own homes and they learn about health and safety in the kitchen, food hygiene, eating healthily and budgeting as well as trying out new and tasty recipes and receiving basic cookery equipment. The sessions have now been extended to include resettled and floating support tenants. We also provide all participants with a bag of fruit and vegetables each week to help meet the ‘five-a-day’ initiative.