Charlotte’s Cooking at Home Story

In Summer 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we launched our Cooking at Home project in order to support families who needed it during the school holidays. Our recipe-led grocery boxes, and the online support, aims to empower families to cook from fresh at home, explore new ingredients and meals, and relieve the financial pressure that can often come with the school holidays.

Charlotte is a recent recipient of our Cooking at Home boxes, joining the scheme in December 2020. She has three children under the age of 7, with her eldest enjoying school meals with City Catering in term time and benefiting from the Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme that enables those in Infant years to eat for free at school.

Their school referred Charlotte’s family into the Cooking at Home scheme, led by City Catering, and funded by Barclays and The National Lottery. The December grocery box provided the ingredients for a range of meals and snacks, including Butternut Squash Macaroni Cheese, Veggie Potato Cakes served with Grilled Tomatoes, Cheese & Tomato Scramble Eggs served with Homemade Potato Wedges and Baked Beans, Butternut Squash Cookies, Cheese Scones, Pancakes with Berry Compote, Porridge with Bananas and Oaty Peach Crumble.

Charlotte’s family is currently in receipt of one income, and her husband is furloughed due to the pandemic. As they aren’t eligible for Free School Meals, they ‘can’t access support normally’ – such as the Free School Meal Voucher scheme when schools have closed. However, the Cooking at Home scheme is not based on eligibility such as this, and City Catering are keen for schools to refer in families whom they feel would benefit from the extra support. This year in particular has caused many changes to family incomes and needs, and it’s important no one misses out on support if it’s needed.

Charlotte and her family enjoyed cooking all the meals offered – except the Crumble, as they aren’t big fans of peaches or crumble! One part of the Cooking at Home project and the recipes chosen is geared around helping people learn different skills to help cooking from scratch. Charlotte commented:

“I normally use a jar when cooking, but I had always wanted to try a white sauce. It was much easier to do with the recipe given to me, so I gave it a go. I expected it to be much harder than it was”

The groceries and support were extremely helpful to Charlotte and her family, and they were able to try new ingredients and cook meals together using the ingredients provided.