Cooking Club
Date Published: 10/07/2024 | Blog category: Eastern
Our Eastern Membership & Community Council have funded six cooking sessions in partnership with H.E.L.P (helping empower people in Peterborough).
MCC Vice Chair, Sam Lefevre, MCC member, Shannon Hilton & I have all attended a session which has filled us all with warmth & gratitude. The stories of their journey & experiences left me inspired. The true understanding of how important these groups are, the safe environment it provides, to be able to open up as well as building relationships & learning new skills. We look forward to building on this project involving our MCC Chair, Lewis Verum from Project Abundance within the coming months.
Beckie MacLellan, Outreach Manager & Co-Founder of HELP charity wrote:
These sessions have been a real gem in the community. Providing key skills for young refugees leaving care and making them feel welcome and listened to. We not only learn/teach how to make a new dish each session, but we give them a printed instruction & ingredient sheet to take away and be able to cook it again at home. We also sit down together as a group to share the food after it is cooked. This enables everyone to try a new cuisine from different countries, to have conversation amongst young people and volunteers/staff for HELP charity, to practise English skills, help with social integration in the community and wellbeing for the young people. We talk about their experiences and anything they need help with.
It is well attended by usually around 10-15 young unaccompanied asylum seeking males and a couple of females. These young lads/ladies are 16, 17 or 18 years old, and housed in the semi-independent accommodation with other teenagers. They are very keen to learn vital skills of cooking and preparing different healthy meals. The sessions have also provided volunteers with the opportunity to come and share a dish from their countries of origin such as a Sudanese lady who came to lead a session and a Pakistani volunteer. It gives them increased confidence in showing others something and leading a class.
