Let’s get cooking and sharing this autumn – it has never been more important to share good food
As Cook and Share Month launches this World Food Day, My Food Community Manager, Chandra Pankhania, explains why it has never been more important to share good food.
This Sunday sees the start of Cook and Share Month, a four-week campaign across the UK where local community groups, schools, faith groups, after school clubs and more all put on events in their local area.
Have you registered yet? You can sign up here.
These events can be one-off sessions where you throw open the doors and invite people from your neighbourhood to get together over a warming mug of soup or they can be hosted at clubs or groups that already meet such as an after-school club or scouts.
Our ethos is to bring people together through food and we launch on World Food Day each year as it gives a moment to reflect on what that means and how we can affect change in our own community.
World Food Day
The theme for this year’s World Food Day is 'leave no one behind' and this has really struck a chord with me.
My role in Get Togethers is to work with the community leaders from all walks of life who have joined the My Food Community group. They all work tirelessly as teachers, nutritionists, community activists and volunteers and have a passion for enabling their local neighbourhood to learn about, experience and share food.
The power of local
With winter ahead, set against perhaps the worse cost of living crisis in a generation, those local community leaders, volunteers and teachers have never been more important.
The people in a community are the first to spot a need and signpost people for help and support.
The My Food Community leaders are a daily inspiration to me and I know there are hundreds of other volunteers who strive to make a difference and leave no one behind, just like the message this World Food Day.
Many of our My Food Community leaders host Cook and Share Month events, last year Jan Lymer from Calder Community Cares ran a ‘Ready, Steady Cook-off' between 2 local schools. The event challenged the schools to use local produce, develop recipes and most importantly of all share the good food together.
Free recipes and resources
We know how time constrained community leaders, teachers and volunteers are, which is why we have created free resources from recipe cards to posters you can edit and social media posts and even a press release you can adapt. You can access it all for free but don’t forget to register your event too.
Check out our Cook and Share toolkit for inspiration, ideas and resources.
All recipes are cost-effective, can be scaled up for group events and include step-by-step guides. There is a Bean and Lentil soup, and this could be used with the Soup Chooser Chart to run a session on making soups and being creative with the ingredients – maybe if you have some food you don’t want to waste or a less common item in a food box? Or you could use the Bug Hotel Activity to learn all about pollinators and food then make the Bumble recipe together.
Whatever you do this Cook and Share Month, thank you for getting involved!
Chandra Pankhania
Food for Life Get Togethers, My Food Community Manager