Support for families is on the menu as a new culinary charity collaboration launches in Northamptonshire.
A Taste of Home is the new pioneering project aimed at helping families in need to cook nutritious meals for their households, helping to boost both physical and mental health. The initiative is being organised by the charity Home-Start Kettering Area with the support of Richard Gordon and the team at Greedy Gordons.
The project aims to help parents learn to make delicious, nutritious, hearty, healthy, home-cooked dishes with selected families being gifted a slow cooker, produce and inspiration from recipes collated in the cookbook A Taste of Home.
Hearing how Home-Start wanted to help local families in the county provided food for thought for Richard and business partner Sonya Harvey. Their business, Greedy Gordons, has pledged to support the initiative including sourcing and donating essential equipment, kitchen utensils and ingredients for families, enabling them to recreate some of the 65 recipes featured in the cookbook.
The long-established charity relies on donations, support and volunteers to help parents and children in its local communities who have all been professionally referred to the organisation for support.
Nikki Farrar-Hayton, Manager at Home-Start Kettering, said: “The Taste of Home project will be life changing for families and what Richard and the team at Greedy Gordons are doing is brilliant. There’s a whole generation of young people who don’t know how to cook, who don’t have the confidence or money to do so. We hope to improve people’s health but also their confidence to be able to cook for themselves.
“This project will change their lives, their health, mental health and make them feel they are doing what they should be doing for their families, and it’ll be great for their self-esteem.”
The cookbooks and slow cookers have been provided to Home-Start charity teams across the UK with the support of Cadent.
However, rather than leaving families fending for themselves when getting to grips with replicating recipes, the Home-Start Kettering Area team wanted to accelerate the community rollout with the support of Greedy Gordons, who will also help to provide essential ingredients for designated dishes.
There are also plans to enlist the support of local catering students to help provide easy-to-follow video clips for future recipes in a bid to make home cooking as engaging and inclusive as possible for everyone taking part. The initial roll-out will see 10 families each week taking part, with plans to expand the support to more households going forward.
Richard said: “The project provides the cookbook and a slow cooker to families in crisis that are short of money and don’t know how to cook meals. I’ve rallied round several companies to donate extra equipment and the ingredients needed to make these meals.
“The plan is that every week the project will help feed families who will receive a food parcel for four people to cook a recipe from the book. So far, we’ve had donations from Bookers, Rutland Catering and Dole Food Company who are also providing donations. The idea is the recipe, food and the knowhow will be provided each week and will be something which is ongoing into next year.”
Nikki hopes the pilot project will inspire similar cooking collaborations across the charity’s UK network. A Taste of Home is a collection of signature dishes and recipes supplied by charity team workers and its network of volunteers, and showcasing dozens of recipes covering everything from comfort food favourites to chicken chasseur and curries plus vegetarian and vegan options.
Richard also plans to source kitchen essentials including saucepans, chopping boards, peelers and mashers for the initiative, which gets under way in October.
Nikki added: “What Richard and the business are doing is invaluable. A lot of people think we just need money, however what we also need are people who will help us through the things they are doing, which is far more beneficial for us.”
Richard added: “This is something I feel passionately about, and it is another way we can help because the charity was struggling to get the ingredients and backing. They want to make a difference, so we wanted to get them the assistance they needed to be able to help these families out, especially with the winter coming up. If we can help teach them how to batch cook and how to freeze food, it will help their money go further. We are delighted to get involved to help the charity get this project off the ground.”
Sam is one of the mums who will be taking part in the project. She said: “I’m so excited that Home-Start is going to help me make some healthy food for me and my children. I don’t have much money and so can’t really afford to try new things, so stick to what I know the kids will eat, which means chicken nuggets, sausages, burgers and pizza, which I know isn’t the best.
“My volunteer has been trying to get me to make a big shepherd’s pie and other meals and freeze what’s left, but I only have a small freezer and it needs defrosting, so that is my next job with my volunteer, that way I will be ready when I start to cook the slow cooker meals.
“My mum was a single parent and had problems with drink, which meant that me and my brother often went without proper food, and we didn’t learn about healthy food. I really want better for my children, as I know what a difference it will make to their health. I can’t wait to get started!”
Nikki highlighted how the charity is always looking for volunteers to help them deliver the support services for families in the Kettering area and urged anyone who was interested in volunteering, or could support the new project, to get in touch with the charity.
You can find out more about Home-Start Kettering Area on their website and find out more about Greedy Gordons here.
