Category: News

Could you become a Fed-Up Slow Cooker Trainer?

Thank you for your interest in becoming a Fed-Up Slow Cooker Trainer. We have had a lot of expressions of interest and have been able to fill all of the places.

Feeding Liverpool, Alchemic Kitchen and chef Adam Franklin have partnered on the Fed-Up Slow Cooker Training Programme, teaching practical, communal cooking courses that bring together and equip community members to make delicious, nutritious, low-maintenance meals on a budget, in a friendly atmosphere to help combat loneliness and social isolation. 

We are looking to support and equip up to 40 people to become community Fed-Up slow cooker trainers, supporting them to host slow cooking courses in their local communities.

Slow cookers are simple to use and typically use over 60% less energy than ovens.

The Fed-Up course, led by chef Adam Franklin, started in 2014 as a course designed to help supplement foodbank parcels to maximise the amount of meals that could be prepared by adding fresh food, a slow cooker and the training to effect change. It has developed into a network of people from community settings connected together to use their new practical skills, support each other and connected into other community projects.

Our half day train the trainer courses

We are offering four half day train-the-trainer sessions on the following dates:

  • Tuesday 14th March 6pm – 9pm 
  • Friday 17th March 10am – 1:30pm 
  • Thursday 20th April 10am – 1:30pm 
  • Friday 21st April 10am – 1:30pm

These will be led by Adam at Alba Restaurant Melling, Prescot Road, Melling, Liverpool, L31 1AP.

Refreshments will be provided.

After the course, the new trainers will receive on-going support including:

  • Training resources to deliver your course
  • 10 recipe packs to handout to your course participants
  • Up to 10 slow cookers for your course participants
  • Ongoing communication with Feeding Liverpool, Alchemic Kitchen, and chef Adam Franklin to support the establishment of your courses

Who should get involved?

We are looking for friendly, enthusiastic people who are already involved in their local communities. This could be through volunteering or being an active member of a community group or community food space or through working in an organisation which connects with communities in Liverpool.

No previous cooking experience is required, just a passion to share what you learn with others and a willingness to lead a community cooking course after completing the training.

On completion of attending a Fed-Up Slow Cooker Trainer Course, a commitment is required to disseminate information and share experience through practical cooking demonstrations in your own community establishment.

How do I get involved?

To get involved please express your interest by following the link below. If all the questions on the form are completed, we will then use a first-come-first-served basis to select participants.

Unfortunately, we anticipate interest may exceed the number of places available, in which case we will create a waiting list for any future train-the-trainer courses.

Due to our funding requirements, participants will need to be primarily based in and willing to deliver courses within the Liverpool City Council geographical area. Participants who would like to deliver courses both within Liverpool and the wider City Region are encouraged to register their interest and note this on the form.

Expression of Interest form can be found here

PhD Opportunity: Drivers of Healthy Start uptake across England and Liverpool

Are you passionate about improving food access for low income families in the UK? Looking for a PhD that will also provide the opportunity to work closely with a local public health team and food alliance?

The University of Liverpool and Feeding Liverpool are looking for a PhD candidate to undertake research on food insecurity, with a particular focus on The Healthy Start Scheme.

This funded-PhD will be supervised by Dr Rachel Loopstra, Professor David Taylor Robinson and Dr Naomi Maynard.

Deadline: 1st March 2023, with an expected start date of October 2023.

Full Details here

Good Food; Our Food

Photography Project Opportunity:

Do you have a passion for food, and the important role it plays in your family and cultural heritage?

If so, Feeding Liverpool would love to invite you to be involved in our photography project. Working with Photographer Emma Case, through photographs and interviews, we want to build a collection of stories celebrating the relationship between food, culture, identity, and how important this is for our wellbeing.

Our aim is to show how our cultural food and the traditions surrounding it are important to our wellbeing through our sense of identity, community, and heritage. We are interested in stories that touch on these themes. We are also interested in sharing experiences of how your culture’s food may be difficult to access (maybe in hospitals or school, etc) and the effect that can have.

We are looking for families and individuals who would like to share their ‘food’ story. It would involve being photographed as you cook your favourite recipe, and a short interview. We would need a couple of hours of your time and will cover the cost of the ingredients for the meal, as well as offering a ‘thank you’ gift voucher to show our appreciation for your time.

The photographs and interviews will be shared as a touring exhibition in Liverpool in May 2023 and you will be invited to a sharing event to launch the tour (which will include food!).

If you are interested in being involved you can email Emma at: [email protected]

Deadline: 3rd March 2023

Give a Boost to Winter Boost

Help us boost foodbank parcels across Liverpool this winter with fresh fruit and vegetables, supporting the health of families in a crisis.

It isn’t right that anyone needs to use a foodbank. Sadly many in our city do, with five of our largest foodbanks giving out over 480 foodbank parcels each week. At Feeding Liverpool we continue to campaign to end the root causes of poverty whilst ensuring people have good food at points of crisis.

Through the Winter Boost project, Feeding Liverpool are working in partnership with five of Liverpool’s largest foodbank networks to raise £2000 to boost every food parcel with fresh fruit and vegetables.

We’ve partnered with St Andrew’s Community Network, South Liverpool Foodbank, Micah Liverpool, New Beginnings Improving Lives CIC, and L6 Community Association and with your help, we can boost foodbank parcels for four to six weeks over Winter.

  • A donation of £5 will boost two foodbank parcels with fresh fruit and vegetables
  • A donation of £10 will boost four parcels with fresh fruit and vegetables
  • A donation of £15 will boost six parcels with fresh fruit and vegetables

If you would like to donate, please get in touch with Dr Naomi Maynard on [email protected]

Hear from Cheryl and Sikarthmi about the difference the Winter Boost project makes:

Cheryl’s story

Cheryl 51, from Toxteth, is a mother of two and has four grand children. One daughter and granddaughter depend on her. Cheryl had been working as a nurse and began working as a cleaner before the pandemic to fill financial gaps. After some time, the work fizzled out and Cheryl and her family were back to square zero putting them into poverty right at the time when her daughter and granddaughter had no income.

Cheryl was reluctant to use foodbanks because it’s all tinned food, and she has multiple allergies. She uses her food as medicine. When she relies on tins she get sick really quickly.

Having fresh fruit and veg in their food parcel means Cheryl’s family are eating nutritious food and their immune systems are boosted. Cheryl says: “We need our immunities boosting during this season anyways, even without Covid, its flu season, its cold season, we need a strong system”

Sikarthmi’s story

After leaving Sri Lanka, Liverpool has been home to Sikarthmi and her five children aged 2, 5, 9, 10 and 15, for the last eight years. Since her husband left, she has struggled financially, and her spousal visa expired. Her and her family’s future feels uncertain.

Her children love the fresh fruit and vegetables they receive at the foodbank. In the evenings they will eat fresh carrots and peppers, dipping them in yoghurt.

Sikarthmi says: “The foodbank feels like a family. It is more than the food I receive, it is a place where I feel loved and accepted, giving me the strength to face the road ahead.”

Liverpool’s Good Food Plan Impact Report 2022

We want to live in a city where everyone can eat good food.

Liverpool’s Good Food Plan addresses key issues related to the food we eat in Liverpool. This includes food insecurity, access to and take-up of healthy, nutritious food, the impact the food we eat is having on our planet, and the practices by which the food we eat is produced.

This report shares the progress made in 2022 towards the goals of the Good Food Plan. It presents ‘Action Highlights’ under each of the five goals identified by Liverpool’s Good Food Taskforce, alongside updates from residents, organisations and businesses who pledged to work towards the vision of Good Food For All at the Good Food Plan Pledge event in November 2021.

 

Read Liverpool’s Good Food Plan Impact Report 2022 here

 

Food support in Liverpool – Household Support Fund Allocation Survey

This fund is now closed 

Feeding Liverpool has been allocated a proportion of the Household Support Fund to support the food supplies of emergency food providers and community food spaces over the next few months. This is to enable these organisations to continue to support households experiencing food insecurity.

To receive a proportion of the Household Support Fund to spend on food supplies, emergency food providers and community food spaces must:
  • Fulfill all the criteria on the ‘eligibility criteria’ page of the survey below
  • Complete the survey in full
  • Agree to provide monitoring data on how this resource has been spent.

To enable Feeding Liverpool to make a fair allocation of funds, during this survey you will be asked how many people you provided regular food support for during the week Monday 14th November – Sunday 20th November. If for any reason this week did not represent a typical week for your organisation in terms of the regular food support you offer (e.g., you had to close your foodbank that week due to staff sickness or your community meal only occurs once a month), please leave a comment in the appropriate box to indicate this and get in touch if you have a question.

You will also be asked which age category the people you provided regular food support to fall into (0 – 17, 18 – 64 and 65+). Please have this information on hand when completing this survey.

You will have the opportunity to provide details about any of the following types of regular food support your organisation provides:

  • Emergency food parcels
  • Community food spaces (e.g. food pantries, food union, community market, community shop)
  • Community meals / meals which are included as part of an activity your organisation offers
  • Any other regular food support your organisation offers

This funding cannot be used to support food-related activities which are aimed solely at people aged under 18 (e.g. a primary school breakfast club or after school club).

We need to take care to not ‘double fund’ any work, so if some of your food support work is in partnership with another organisation (e.g. St Andrews Community Network, The Big Help) then please liaise with them about who is best placed to receive the funds for that type of provision.

The funding period will be between January and the end of March 2023. The full terms of any allocation of funding will be set out in a partnership agreement with Feeding Liverpool.

Where possible, we want community food spaces and places where people receive emergency food provision to be warm and welcoming. We know organisations are struggling with their energy costs. We are therefore, in additional to funding for food supplies, offering a one-off £500 energy grant for each organisation who is eligible for this fund to go towards your organisation’s energy bills.

Unfortunately, without exception, any organisation whose survey response is received after the deadline of 11.59pm on Thursday 5th January will not be eligible for this fund.

For any questions email Dr Naomi Maynard [email protected]

Complete survey here

Hawksmoor Partners with Feeding Liverpool

The award winning steakhouse and cocktail bar group, Hawksmoor has announced a new charitable partnership with Feeding Liverpool.

Hawksmoor’s work with international, national and local charity partners runs alongside and underpins their ethical and sustainable business model. Hawksmoor is extremely proud to be a certified B Corp and part of their ethos is to support local and global communities in line with their goals to feed people well and to grow with integrity.

International partners include Action Against Hunger and the One Water Foundation to provide basic human needs and rights. Hawksmoor’s national partners include Magic Breakfast, providing meals for children; Kelly’s Cause offering mental health first aid training to the hospitality industry; and Hospitality Action giving vital assistance to people working in their sector.

Hawksmoor also works closely with a number of charitable initiatives to provide support to causes that transform lives in the cities in which their restaurants are located. In London they work with City Harvest and Chefs in Schools; in Manchester their partners include Eat Well Manchester and Wood Street Mission; and their charity partner in Edinburgh is Cyrenians.

Will Beckett, Co-Founder and CEO, Hawksmoor says:

We’re really happy to be supporting Feeding Liverpool, not just because they think the same way we do about food poverty, communities and the shameful reality that so many people still rely on food banks in modern Britain, but because they are great at what they do and they represent the best of Liverpool, a community that looks after its own as well as anywhere in the world.

Hawksmoor has pledged a £10,000 initial contribution to Feeding Liverpool and will follow this initial donation with ongoing support with a portion of dessert and cocktail sales going to the charity, and additional fundraising through dedicated campaigns and special events.

Dr Naomi Maynard, Good Food Programme Director, Feeding Liverpool, says:

We are delighted to be named as Hawksmoor’s charity partner in Liverpool, who share our passion for good food. We look forward to developing a mutual partnership as we listen and learn from the Hawksmoor team and welcome them into Feeding Liverpool’s network. Hawksmoor’s support has come at a vital time, as many in our city are facing a difficult winter. This partnership will enable Feeding Liverpool to continue to develop and support projects working to tackle food insecurity and improve access to good food in the city.

Hawksmoor Liverpool is situated in the iconic, Grade II-listed India Buildings, which sits just off Castle Street on the corner of Brunswick Street and Fenwick Street, and boasts a 150 cover restaurant, private dining space and a bar to be enjoyed by both diners or those simply looking for a spot to enjoy a drink.

Queen of Greens Veg Bus to Help Tackle Food Deserts and Food Insecurity

A mobile greengrocers’ delivering fresh fruit and veg to ‘food deserts’ and communities hit by food insecurity across Liverpool and Knowsley has been launched.

The new Queen of Greens bus-shop is a pioneering initiative to boost access to healthy food and help tackle health inequalities.

It visits 29 stops each week including schools, health and community centres including Fazakerley hospital, providing people with better opportunities to shop for nutritious food closer to their home or workplace.

The route takes in neighbourhoods classed as ‘food deserts’, including areas of Everton and Kirkby, where residents have to travel more than a kilometre or walk 15 minutes to reach a supermarket selling ‘green’ produce.

Launched as families face huge financial challenges this autumn and winter amid the cost-of-living crisis, the bus also visits communities hard hit by food insecurity, and where barriers to food access have been identified following community consultation.

Customers can pay for their shopping with Alexandra Rose vouchers, and Healthy Start vouchers for pregnant women and young families at all stops, as well as cash or card.

The project is thanks to a unique partnership between charities Feeding Liverpool, which is leading the city’s Good Food Plan strategy to create a city where ‘everyone can eat good food’, and Feedback Global’s project Alchemic Kitchen, with funding from Feeding Britain.

The partners worked with Liverpool City Council, local NHS providers, NHS estate consultants gbpartnerships, Liverpool and Sefton Health Partnership, Community Health Partnerships, Knowsley social housing provider Livv Housing Group, and the Alexandra Rose charity, to ensure the route reaches a wide community audience.

The aim is to help reduce health inequalities and improve nutrition and life chances, by making it easier for people to access healthy food close to their homes and workplaces, and it is hoped more stops may be added in future.

Only 1 in 2 adults in Liverpool eat their five recommended fruits and vegetables each day, only 12% of children aged 11-18 eat their five-a-day, and it is estimated a third of adults in Liverpool are food insecure – where food is a source of worry, frustration, and stress.

Both Everton and Kirkby are among the ten most economically deprived food deserts in England, and most of Knowsley (77% of the borough) is currently classed as a food desert.

The shop runs Monday to Friday and also includes stops in Anfield, Walton, Fazakerley, Kensington, Edge Hill, Belle Vale, Toxteth, Kensington, Wavertree, West Derby, Picton, Aigburth, Speke, Garston, Halewood, Aintree, Knotty Ash, Huyton, and Prescot.

The project partners funded the purchase and refurbishment of the former 24-seater Iveco coach, transforming it into a fully kitted out shop.

The exterior is decorated with a fresh fruit-inspired artwork by schoolgirl Leema Alzu’bi aged ten, from Toxteth, who won a competition run by the partners to have her artwork turned into the logo, by Liverpool design agency NonConform.

The bus is operated day-to-day by greengrocer Paul Flannery from Dingle, who has run the ‘Red Apple’ bus as an independent local business for the last ten years, giving him an insight into growing needs serving local communities, particularly through the pandemic.

The project is enabling Paul to expand his business and route, retiring the Red Apple bus and leasing the new Queen of Greens bus from Feedback Global for a peppercorn rent. His new route visits more stops, strategically designated to reach more people, and meet the project goals.

The bus also carries recipe cards with ideas for healthy meals people can make on a budget, and Paul encourages shoppers to buy in amounts they can afford; and even try a taste of unfamiliar produce before they buy.

Everyone is encouraged to shop on the new Queen of Greens bus regardless of income, to help champion better local food provision and support the venture as a viable business long term, with the potential to expand in future.

Similarly, to a traditional greengrocers’, the Queen of Greens bus prioritises stocking local and seasonal produce where possible including produce from farms in Lancashire and Cheshire, with a focus on quality and choice.

The bus will also help reduce the environmental impact of people’s weekly shop by reducing the need for shoppers to travel, reducing packaging, and selling food in small amounts so people buy only what they need and can afford.

Dr Naomi Maynard, Programme Director for Liverpool’s Good Food Plan and Feeding Liverpool said:

One in three adults in Liverpool is food insecure, meaning food is a source of worry, frustration and stress; this situation is only set to worsen as food and fuel prices escalate.

One of the contributing factors to poor nutrition and unhealthy diets is that access to good food is limited in some parts of the city, with some neighbourhoods classed as ‘food deserts’ much worse affected than others, while in Knowsley three-quarters of the borough is a food desert.

It means people end up relying on food that is more readily available close to their home or work, and often that is not the best option for both their finances or their long-term health or the health of their growing children.

The Queen of Greens bus is part of a long-term solution to helping reduce health inequalities and improve nutrition and life chances, by making it easier for people to access healthy food in their communities whilst supporting sustainable local businesses.

The stops have been chosen to target some of the city region’s food deserts where access to good food is particularly poor, and have been developed in consultation with local health and community partners.

This is not designed to be an emergency provision – we still need urgent action to support people’s incomes amid the cost-of living crisis, however we are pleased to have been able to facilitate for the bus to accept Healthy Start cards, and Alexander Rose vouchers at selected stops, helping to reach low-income families who are experiencing particularly tough challenges right now.

Professor Matt Ashton, Director of Public Health for Liverpool City Council and lead DPH for the north west’s Food Active healthy weight programme, said:

The Queen of Greens project is a fantastically creative and collaborative approach to helping tackle one of the most pressing challenges facing our communities today, and Liverpool City Council is delighted to be supporting it, as part of the Liverpool Good Food Plan, working to create a city where everybody can eat good food.

Providing a more accessible supply of fresh groceries closer to people’s homes is a vital step on the way to helping tackle health inequalities, and improving nutrition and wellbeing for local children and adults.

Lucy Antal, North West project manager for Feedback Global’s Regional Food Economy and Lead for Food Justice, said:

Food justice means equal opportunities to access fresh food no matter your income or location.

We’re all about making food systems fairer for people and planet, and at the moment they are not, with nine retailers currently holding 96% of the UK food market share.

We are interested in how we can help people access fresh food so they have choice, and opportunity for nutritious food that doesn’t impact other people or the planet.

So fair wages, food that’s in season, locally available and supports people. It’s about trying to re-localise food supplies on a more human scale.

Lucy, winner of the BBC’s Food and Farming Awards Community Food Champion 2021, added:

For some families, poor access to fresh food creates a reliance on processed food and what’s available in their immediate area, and part of that is to do with time as well as income.

If you don’t eat well you won’t learn well, if it you don’t learn well you won’t earn well. If you don’t get the vitamins and minerals you need your brain and body won’t develop properly, you’re hungry in class, you don’t get the grades, you don’t have the jobs.

This about offering an opportunity to households in places where at the moment they may struggle to purchase fresh food locally.

Keenan Humble, Development Manager for Feedback Global’s Regional Food Economies North Programme which carried out community consultations to help map the route, said:

The Queen of Greens bus enables people to have better choice, to eat a more nutritionally balanced diet, and also to experiment.

Paul will sell people the quantity they need so you don’t need to buy a whole sack of something if you don’t know if your family will like it. So it gives choice and helps empower people in their own diets.

In supermarkets when they do five fruits for 20p that’s a loss leader, we can’t compete with that price and we are not trying to, but we are competing where people would have to travel bus taxi or car. We are trying to keep things at market stall prices and the focus is on accessibility and quality.

It’s also about community and bringing people together in places where they can talk about food, the bus has a real social atmosphere with people are chatting to each other, and that’s also really important for people to have a place to mingle.

Paul Flannery driver of the Queen of Greens bus, said:

I’ve been a greengrocer all my life and I’ve got to know communities all over the city and I know what different people in different communities like to eat and what they need.

This is a brilliant opportunity for us to reach more people with fresh fruit and veg. People don’t want to have to travel far to do their shopping and often they can’t because of work, or childcare, or they can’t afford it.

This means we can meet more people close to where they live and work. The bus has got a real sense of community about it, we really found that in the pandemic, people loved coming out and having a chat, it gives them a lift in the day, and that’s good for their mental health too.

People like trying the different produce. Sometimes if they’ve never had something, like a kiwi I can give them a taste before they buy it.

Or if they can’t afford a big bag of something I can sell them a small amount, not like in a supermarket where you might have to buy a whole pack, but they might not be able to afford it that week, so I can sell them a little bit.

Schoolgirl Leema Alzu’bi aged ten, from Toxteth, who won a competition to have her artwork turned into the Queen of Greens bus logo, entered as a participant in a Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme at the Al Ghazali community centre on Earle Road last summer.

Leema said:

The bus will be taking fruit and vegetables to people who can’t get it close to their home. I feel very happy and very proud that my drawing will go to help something good.

Andy Muir, Northwest Regional Director for Community Health Partnerships and LSHP (Liverpool and Sefton Health Partnership) Director said:

The Queen of Greens bus will travel to twelve health and wellbeing centres around Liverpool and Knowsley, selling affordable fresh fruit and vegetables to the patient’s and healthcare workers within the centres – which are often located in areas where it is difficult to access good quality, cost effective fresh produce.

With the cost-of-living crisis across the country, healthy foods have become lot more expensive than junk food, so for families on a budget buying unhealthy food seems the better option to save money.

The Queen of Greens project will go some way towards helping families all over Liverpool and Knowsley live a healthier lifestyle in an affordable way.

I’m really excited about this valuable service expanding to serve the patients and staff who attend and work out of Liverpool and Sefton Health Partnership’s LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust) buildings.

Never has this been more needed and the project will help a lot of people within vulnerable communities in staying healthy and fighting the obesity epidemic by selling affordable and healthy fresh fruit and veg every day.

Amanda Newton, Executive Director of Customer Insight at Livv Housing Group, said:

Livv is a housing provider, but we also play a key role in supporting the people who live in our homes with the challenges that they face in life beyond the home.

We’re constantly engaging with our customers to get their feedback and unsurprisingly, one of the issues that’s troubling people recently is the rising costs of food.

We’re working closely with Feeding Liverpool to focus on how access to good quality and nutritious food is one of the foundations of good health and wellbeing.

We’re thrilled to be able to bring the Queen of Greens to our customers’ doorsteps.

Providing them with access to fresh and affordable ingredients each week, all year round, is going to make a massive difference to the people and families that live in our communities. It’s easy, convenient and also minimises waste as they’re buying the exact amount that they need.

The uptake from our customers since the launch of the service has been brilliant to see and we’ve heard from so many of them already about how much they’re enjoying it.

We’re working on with Alchemic Kitchen and Feeding Liverpool as part of our Food in the Community programme and Queen of Greens is just one example of the work being delivered on the ground. We’re looking forward to continuing to work together to address the challenges that are faced in our communities as part of our community investment programmes.

The project partners say if successful, they would like to grow a fleet of Queen of Greens buses, to help refocus the local food economy towards a more ‘people and planet centred’ approach, and away from reliance on big supermarkets.

Lucy Antal added:

We need to see long haul system change.

If we can encourage people to eat more fruit and veg because they have access to it, then we can encourage farmers to produce more locally, we can ensure the demand is there to enable farmers and growers to look more at the local market.

The bus will prioritise local supply where possible, and also a focus on seasonal produce. It is very similar to a traditional greengrocers or the mobile food services one many of us remember from childhood. We are looking to the past to create a better future.”

The message to everyone is to use this, use your spending power to support it, so we can build a fleet of mobile market stalls!

View a map and timetable of the Queen of Greens stops at www.feedingliverpool.org/queenofgreens

Food Aid Liverpool

Join us for Liverpool Food Aid Liverpool on Saturday 1st April 2023 at The Florrie

Liverpool’s independent community food spaces are beyond capacity and in urgent need of funds and food donations to cope with ever increasing demand.

Many people in Liverpool struggle to access good nutritious food. With the impact of the cost of living crisis it is estimated 1 in 3 people are now cutting back on heating, hot water, electricity or skipping meals to pay their bills.

To help support and raise awareness around food inequality, The Florrie and Feeding Liverpool together are partnering with many food spaces right across Liverpool to host a fundraising music festival on Saturday 1st April 2023 – Food Aid Liverpool from 2.00pm to 11.00pm (last entry is 8.00pm).

Buy tickets for Food Aid Liverpool 

The event will feature many of the UK’s best tribute artists who include Queen II, Ultimate Coldplay, The Cavern Club Beatles, Arctic Roll, Katy Ellis – Taylor Swift, Spice Girls Experience, LMXT – Little Mix, Northern Soul Train & Midnight Soul Sisters to name but a few. Liverpool’s finest emerging talent and DJs will also feature.

Food Aid Liverpool aims to raise urgent funds and food donations to support access to and the take-up of healthy food and to create greater awareness about the rise in food inequalities.

“The moment we had to turn people away, as we could no longer cope with demand, we knew something urgent had to be done to help the people and families of our communities. We quickly realised this wasn’t just our issue but the entire city’s, which urged us to create Food Aid Liverpool to hopefully end food poverty in our city and raise urgent funds through the festival.” Laurence Fenlon from The Florrie

Visiting the Food Aid Liverpool website to find out more:  www.foodaidliverpool.co.uk

Community Cooking Conversations Event Resources

In October 2022 we held our community food network event Community Cooking Conversations at Kirkdale Community Kitchen. This session brought together Good Food organisations to listen, learn, share and make connections with others, focusing on the theme of Community Cooking.

By community cooking this can mean any project where groups meet to cook meals together or projects involving cooking meals for the community, this could look like cooking classes, community meals, a community kitchen, lunch clubs, or slow cooker projects for example.

The session included a plant-based lunch, networking opportunities, a live cooking demonstration, and practical advice about how to setup and sustain your community cooking project.

Lunch was a delicious vegan sweet potato satay curry cooked and demonstrated by chef Leigh Menzie from Kirkdale Community Kitchen.

Recordings

We were joined by three speakers, Dr Bryce Evans, Professsor of Modern History at Liverpool Hope University, Dr Hayley Tait, GP, Author, and Cook, and Keenan Humble from Alchemic Kitchen.

Bryce talked about the solidarity model and history of community kitchens.

Hayley told us about her project Vinny’s Kitchen, a plant-based cookery school in Wavertree.

Keenan shared about how to sustain your community cooking projects.

Big thank you to all the speakers and Chef Leigh for his cooking demo and delicious food!

 

Links to resources


During the event, several resources were mentioned. Here are links we think you may find useful if you are in the process of setting up a community cooking project:

Government website allergen course – Food Standards Agency food allergy online training

LCVS – to set up your charity – Start Up Advice and Support | (lcvs.org.uk)

Broken Plate Report (mentioned by Hayley) – The Broken Plate 2022 | Food Foundation

Made in Hackney (support for setting up community kitchens- mentioned by Hayley) – Home | Made In Hackney

 

There will be more community food network events coming soon.