LET’S EAT – A COMMUNITY COOKBOOK supported by Calderdale Council, The Piece Hall Trust and Community Foundation for Calderdale

We worked with Calderdale Council, The Piece Hall Trust and Community Foundation for Calderdale on an exciting project to design and produce a cookbook for families in Calderdale as part of the Never Hungry Again campaign.

The Never Hungry Again campaign came from Calderdale’s response to national calls to extend free school meals beyond term times. The aim of the campaign is to end child hunger in the borough.

Never Hungry Again aims to support children and young people and eradicate local food poverty. This is part of the Vision2024 for Calderdale where everyone can reach their potential, through the kindness and resilience that define the borough. The campaign builds on Calderdale Council’s longstanding commitment to reducing inequalities, and ongoing partnership work with other organisations to tackle food and family poverty. Efforts have been stepped up during the pandemic to support families who are struggling disproportionately.

Here at verd de gris we love to cook and to celebrate the heritage and culture of cooking. So we were delighted to be given the chance, through the #NeverHungryAgain campaign, to create a cookbook of recipes that mean something special to people here in Calderdale. For instance, a recipe passed down from a grandmother in rural Mirpur, or a simple sponge cake cooked for a child’s birthday in Halifax.

We have put together over 30 recipes that showcase the rich diversity of people who live in the borough: people born and bred in the hills and valleys of the Calder, and people who have made a home here and brought traditional recipes from all around the world.

You can have a read of the book here:

https://issuu.com/home/published/letseat

So many of us have become disconnected from where our food comes from, and in doing so, have lost touch with some important connections along the way: how to prepare and cook fresh food, the value of nutrition, how to sit down as a family or as a community and enjoy good food. So, part of this book was about exploring our relationship with food: how happy it can make us feel, but also the sometimes negative relationship we have with it.

We also went out and about meeting the small independent traders: the butchers, the greengrocers, the fishmongers, who work so hard to bring us good quality, fresh food every day. These people have such passion and knowledge about food and we lose them from our high streets at our peril!

The printed book went go out to libraries, family centres and food banks across Calderdale.

mob: 07926 978651

email: jeff.vdg@btinternet.com
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