Sunderland -based food community kitchen My Sister’s Kitchen has teamed up with Bags of Taste - a leading authority on food poverty and health inequality - to bring their award winning programme to the North East.
The programme will help people in food poverty learn how to cook healthy, low cost meals from scratch, and is a step up from foodbank support - helping equip people with the skills and knowledge they need to cook for themselves and their families.
Rather than providing a cookery class that teaches a basic recipe, the charity provides a recipe for life-long dietary and financial change.
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A crowdfund campaign is now up and running, and My Sister’s Kitchen and Bags of Taste are aiming to get up to £11,000 in funding from Crowdfund Sunderland. The new programme aims to start in early 2023 and will support local people across all five areas of the city (North, Washington, Coalfields, West and East) improve their diets, as well as health and finances.
The programme will support 120 people to complete a two-week home cooking programme where all participants receive a free bag of food, recipes and basic equipment to their door. They’ll learn cooking, shopping and budgeting tips, as well as being supported by mentors along the way so they can in a more healthy fashion.
Recent data has revealed that in Sunderland, 22.1 per cent of children aged four to five are classified as overweight or obese. It is also one of 20 local authorities with the highest increases in child poverty from 2014/15 to 2019/20 (27.4 per cent to 37.6 per cent).
On the project, Director and Development Worker at My Sister’s Kitchen, Jo Gordon, said: "We are hugely excited about the possibility of bringing Bags of Taste to Sunderland for the first time and we are asking everyone to support our Crowdfund campaign if they can. We know that times are hard for everyone.
"A £5 pledge is the cost of 2 cups of coffee, or a bottle of wine, or a lunchtime meal deals or the cost of a pint of beer. The cost of living crisis is having a huge impact on those who are most vulnerable and this work is needed now more than ever.”
Helen Buckland, Area Manager at Bags of Taste, added: “There has never been a greater need to support people in food poverty. We know that those with the least have been hugely impacted first by the pandemic and now by the cost of living crisis.
"We are excited to bring Bags of Taste to Sunderland and hope that we can support the local community and their families to eat better and save money for the long term."
You can learn more about My Sister's Kitchen, here.
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