Launching our free home-cooking support program
Our teams have been working hard to bring a new program of support for households in the form a series of resources, under the banner ‘Cooking at Home with City Catering’. In response to feedback, we have been exploring ways that we can support our communities with more food and cooking education. Whilst Covid-19 may limit our ability to deliver this face to face right now, we still wanted to collate our skill, knowledge and passion together to benefit as many people as possible.
When lockdown happened in March, food became an incredibly precious resource for many. We saw empty shelves, panic buying and restrictions. As a result, it become crucial to ensure that people could access food, safely. It really was a surreal, and challenging time for us all. Eventually, the reaction from the public settled, and most people found a support system that worked for them - whether it was neighbours, family, or local and national Government support. We also know that a lot of community groups, charities and schools stepped in to support - and we have seen some triumphant efforts! However, food insecurity continues to be on the rise, with finances, logistics and resources being limited
As a charity who believes that everyone deserves access to good food, we have adapted weekly to the changing needs of the community to ensure that food continued to be provided. However, we pledged to do more to help.
We know that serving a good, warm meal is equally important as receiving groceries. And so, we wanted to create something, for everyone, to ensure that those at home - now and in the future - feel supported, empowered and inspired to cook good food, from scratch. We know that everyone’s abilities, resources and confidence is different, so we hope to work together and tailor a support program that matches the need of the community for which is benefits. It will continue to grow, organically, and will be there long after the summer holidays for people to dip in and out off, and find the support that helps them the most.
We asked our Charitable Impact Manager, to tell us a little more about the program. “With Cooking at Home, we have really aimed to create an inclusive, supportive and welcoming set our resources. We know that people access things differently - so if you’d rather watch a video, or perhaps read the recipes, or like to see photos of the steps, we have tried to cover all basis. Overall, we just hope to start a conversation, and help people explore new meals, new ingredients, and new ways of doing things - whilst being safe, and healthy.”
The Cooking at Home program features four main elements; healthy family-friendly recipes, how-to videos and other resources, peer to peer support and professional guidance. By joining in with the Facebook group, people will be able to join in in weekly conversations about food and cooking, ask our professional team of cooks questions about their meals, and most importantly - join a supportive community of others, looking to do more in the kitchen. You can get involved here.
We will be adding more as summer goes on, and then into the new term too. We can’t wait to show you what we have planned, and we’d love to hear from you too. Do get involved, and let us know what you’d like to us to focus on.
Keep an eye out on our socials for more as the program develops. We are looking forward to having you get involved!