Handy guide to... running a community chef project - Kent Trust Web

More documents

Recommendations

Info

In 2008 Kent County Council (KCC) launched two community chef pilots in Kent; one covering Dartford and Gravesham and the other covering the Isle of Sheppey. KCC provided funding for each chef for a year and evaluated the impact they had on their local communities. This guide is aimed at commissioners interested in running a similar project and provides advice and learning from KCC’s experience and the formal evaluation of the community chef pilots. What is a community chef project? A community chef is someone that provides free or very low cost cooking courses for members of a community to provide the community with the skills and knowledge to prepare tasty, quick, low cost and healthy meals at home. A community chef also works with partners to identify and co-ordinate existing cookery initiatives to ensure that key community organisations work in partnership to pool resources and fill gaps in provision to meet the health needs of the community. Why are community chef projects useful? The Department of Health acknowledges that the perception that good food is more expensive and time consuming to cook is a barrier to a healthy lifestyle. A practical way to overcome barriers to healthy eating is to actively get parents and children cooking together. Community cookery clubs are not a new idea and have been used as a health promotion tool for many years to teach about healthy eating and develop basic cookery skills. A Needs Assessment (unpublished) undertaken on the Isle of Sheppey by Swale PCT (now Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT) in 2005 found that residents highlighted cookery classes as the top activity they would like to engage in to improve their health. This supported the 2001 Survey of Mothers carried out by Sheerness Children and Family Centre that found mothers believed they could adopt a healthier lifestyle by being provided with quick and easy meal ideas. Community chefs have been hugely successful in East Sussex and the Isle of Wight in equipping communities with cookery skills and healthy eating knowledge.
Setting up a community chef project Preparation Before setting up a community chef project you need to consider the following: Location KCC found that working at a local level is key to a successful community chef project. Community chefs need to build up close working relationships with local partner organisations to maximise opportunities to use available resources such as kitchens and equipment for minimal or no cost. Covering too large a geographical area means that the chef can not build the close personal relationships with members of communities who may benefit most from this type of project. Becoming established and building up trust in a local community is imperative. Additionally a chef covering too large a geographical area will spend more time and expense in travel. Funding Consideration needs to be given to how the chef will be funded. Funding needs to cover: Recruitment and advertising for the chef Chefs salary, on costs and travel expenses Office costs Room hire, equipment, printed recipes and ingredients for cooking courses Publicity Some costs could be recouped such as charging a small fee for courses to cover ingredients or hiring the chef out at events to generate additional income. Sponsorship from local businesses, organisations and supermarkets may also be available. Funding may also be available from local partners. Partners To firmly embed the community chef in the local area KCC worked closely with partners from the start to encourage a sense of ownership of the project by the community. A community Food Partnership was established to plan, recruit and manage the work of the chef and included professionals from local community organisations such as PCTs, Healthy Living Centres, Children’s Centres, community centres, voluntary organisations, churches, GP surgeries, schools, elderly, homeless and housing associations. It was decided that the chefs should be hosted by the Healthy Living Centres who were well established in the community and could offer management and office space for the chefs. The advantage of involving local partners is that resources are more forthcoming and the chef will quickly became an accepted and established community member. By being involved partners are aware of the value of the chef, can promote the services offered and quickly establish an induction programme and work plan.
Page 4 and 5: Venues and equipment The chef will
Page 6: After attending cooking courses the

Handy guide to... running a community chef project - Kent Trust Web

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?