Community Cooking Project

We were inspired by lockdown to launch a new community initiative that is about bringing people together, doing something fun and different and trying new things.

Monkton has produced a series of five minute cooking videos for children. Each one comes with an ingredients list and a recipe card, and is something simple and healthy to try. Examples include home made chicken nuggets and energy balls.

These videos and information sheets have been made available to a wide range of primary schools in the area for distribution to families. However, schools and local churches have also been invited to refer families to us who would benefit from receiving a free pack of the complete set of ingredients as a way of boosting morale and increasing access to the initiative. These packs are assembled and delivered to the door by Monkton staff on a weekly basis.

Aims

To reach out to our immediate community during difficult times. This partnership came about in response to feedback from local parents about the need to encourage children away from screens and towards doing interactive, creative things together.

Background

Planning for the initiative, and work to develop the resources and identify families who would like to be involved began in January 2021.

Resources

All the funds needed for the ingredients deliveries each week was raised by a team of Graduate Teaching Assistants here at Monkton. They did a sponsored 24 mile challenge through the night in the midst of the snow and raised over £1000 in crowd funding which allowed us to get the initiative up and running.

The same team of Graduate Teaching Assistants, led by one of the Houseparent Team and supported by the Director of Partnerships, oversee the production of weekly resources on an ongoing basis.

Impact

In the first week of the initiative, 3 schools received the first video and information pack, and four families identified by the local church signed up and received free packs of ingredients.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far and we are working to further the reach of these resources, building up the number of families benefiting from this opportunity.

Pupil Involvement

The pupils engaged in this project so far are all primary school age.

Frequency

This is a weekly series and the hope is to continue it until Easter and then review impact and next steps.