Slow cooker donation scheme aims to help those in need in Lancaster to feed their families at low cost
A new sustainable food initiative has launched to help families in need of support to make ends meet while eating healthy meals.
Food for Thought, a not-for-profit group run by volunteers, is providing families and individuals with a slow cooker kit, enabling them to make nutritious meals at low cost.
The kit consists of a slow cooker and a recipe book, and over the next few weeks everyone who receives a slow cooker will also be provided with recipe ingredients for the meals in the booklet.
Slow cookers are easy to use, require little preparation time and can help promote a nutritious diet using sustainable food.
The slow cooker kits will be donated to members of Food for Thought and also to First Light Trust, who provide support for veterans of the emergency services and Armed Forces.
Working in partnership with Father's House in Skerton, Food for Thought hold a food club every Thursday - the same day that Father's House holds a community café takeaway where those struggling to make ends meet can get a hot meal for free or a small donation.
They have also launched a new food club which has just opened at the Friends' Meeting House.
The 'What's Slow Cooking' initiative is led by Louise Williams and has been funded by Lancaster and District CVS.
Paul Varey from Food For Thought said: "We work with multiple agencies to intercept food and redistribute it amongst our members.
"Working like this we can help each other and food that is left over can be redistributed.
"The work that we do has led us to see how the pandemic has left many people struggling financially, the result of which can be both food and fuel poverty.
"We believe that the use of slow cookers will help to solve some of these problems as slow cookers are energy efficient and can be used to make soups, stews and casseroles from reasonably priced ingredients.
"Each slow cooker kit contains a booklet with recipe ideas along with handy hints and tips on how families can make the most of their slow cooker, and the recipes should provide at least four portions.
"Food For Thought will also be providing a weekly bag of ingredients so that those people who get a slow cooker will be able to make the recipes in the booklet.
"We would like to express our gratitude to LDCVS for the grant, which has enabled us to run the 'What's Slow Cooking' initiative."