New cooking classes will help people in Lancaster feed their family during cost of living crisis

The classes are free and each class will comprise six people with each person taught how to prepare a particular meal using local, seasonal ingredients and those available from food banks.

Classes will be fun, educational and build confidence to use ingredients that participants may not have tried before.

Classes will run on weekdays from 10am to 2pm and everyone will eat together after preparing the food.

Participants will get to take home a spice pack, recipe card and enough food to feed their family that evening.

The classes will be run by Global Village Café, an events catering business operating since 2018, showcasing food inspired and cooked by refugees and asylum seekers.

They cater for events including business lunches, dinners, parties, conferences, supper clubs and more.

The first phase of this project is being funded by Closing Loops and has been designed to help people learn how to cook affordable, nourishing and sustainable meals.

The Closing Loops project is delivered by six local organisations (LESS, Lancaster District CVS, Eggcup, Global Link, Shared Future CIC and Scientists for Global Responsibility), and is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. It supports community-led action and local initiatives to help and encourage people to grow, cook and eat local, seasonal and sustainable food and reduce waste.

The Global Village Café will also introduce participants to Wonderbags (a non-electric slow cooker) and Gabriella Bavone, who runs a project in Lancaster teaching people to make and use them.

Together they are hoping to get more funding to run workshops for those who attend the classes.

An initial series of six cookery classes will run for six weeks – with a different set of customers each week followed by a further series later, having secured funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

So, if you are an absolute beginner or have experience but need some inspiration to help you produce affordable and nutritious meals, contact [email protected] to sign up or get more information.