Ive worked alongside Darnhill school now for over 10 years.
Most of the young people there are autistic and many have been excluded from mainstream education. This dosent dampen their enthusiasm for food and cooking. They love to cook and creative from the youngest 5/6 yr olds to the oldest teenagers.
Many of the young people are in a time of transition and will/do hopefully make it back to mainstream schools. Whenever I have organised cooking projects here they have always been a great success, the young people always throw themselves into the sessions which gave me my idea to develop a survival cookery book. The young people come from across Rochdale and many if not all are from areas of acute poverty and deprivation. As part of the project we will go to visit local food growers, producers and visit Manchesters Chinatown. We will also reach out to other local groups and we have already secured a place at next years Rochdale food festival where we can showcase our work.
What we'll deliver:
- provide fun cooking activities
- host amazing food trips
- involve community in celebrations
Why it's a great idea:
Teaching young people to cook and about food is always going to be a good idea! This is especially true when you have got a great school to work with super enthusiastic young people who love learning about food. One of the great things about this project is the fact that we will be working towards a real life, fun, easy to follow recipe book with hints, tips and ideas. The carefully selected mouth-watering dishes will have all been road-tested many times and it will be supported online and you will be able to follow the story with young people led blogs/twitter.
There will also be some serious Nutrition/health stuff in the background covering topics such as snacks and getting enough Hydration. We also plan to start an amazing food journey of discovery around Greater Manchester and the Northwest. Its being led by Adys kitchen multi- award winning chef , Seafish Ambassador, author and general food loving educator.
Steps to get it done:
- Having a prototype survival cookery book
