A new healthy eating on a budget project will be working in Holy Trinity and St John’s School from this September.
Local Meals Made with Love – due to be renamed ‘We Do Not Eat Elephants’ – is the latest project of former Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet boss Sharon Goodyer.
The 73-year-old handed over the kitchen and Our Shop scheme to Social Enterprise Kent (SEK) in 2022 after five years at the helm but retirement was not something she ever planned on despite undergoing a brain operation to slow the symptoms of Parkinson’s..
The latest scheme is being supported by charity Eudaimonia, which aims to address the cycle of poverty, poor health and unemployment and to improve the conditions of life in socially and economically disadvantaged communities.
As a precursor to the work at Holy Trinity and St John’s, Sharon and her team have been demonstrating how to make healthy but budget friendly dishes during sessions next to the Ellington Park Café every Wednesday.
The idea is to use as much local fruit and veg as possible, including gleaned items, and ingredient bags are given away so people can try it out at home.
Sessions include the use of free food, such as damsons that had ripened on trees near the park in Ramsgate, and were collected by Sharon to be used.
Sharon said: “Every Wednesday this summer holidays between 11am and 2pm, my team and I are demonstrating how to make some budget dishes next to the Ellington Park Cafe. We are using local fruit and veg as much as we can and giving away free bags of ingredients so you can try to make the dishes at home.
“So far this summer we have demonstrated tasty economical useful stir fries, trying to use up all the odd bits left over at the end of the week in the fridge and in the veg baskets in your kitchen. Once sliced or chopped, veg starts to deteriorate quite quickly so those packs of veg chopped ready to use in stir fries are often not a sensible product to buy when reduced. They become slimy quickly.
“Starting with one of those colourful and very cheap noodle packs and not using the sachets of flavourings that are included or at least not using all of them. This is often the cheapest way to buy noodles.
“We have demonstrated how to make yogurt- or rather how NOT to make it. Not everything goes to plan in life and the night before, because I had forgotten to buy some plain yogurt to use as my starter, I used a thick and creamy yogurt bought from my local corner shop just before it shut. This usually means the product contains maize starch. It did not make a good ‘starter’ so we will be redoing that.
“There are blackberries, elderberries and damsons ripening at the moment all around us. Please pick them, put them in plastic tubs and then put them into your freezer Soon, we will have eating and maybe even some cooking apples to go with them. A blackberry and apple crumble is the best food in the world when home-made. Good enough to grace the menu of the best restaurant or to feed your family.”
The project is being funded by Feeding Britain and Morrisons Foundation.
The volunteer team includes photographer David Ian Harris and volunteer chef Jordan Collins.
In September the project will use surplus and foods from local gleaners and growers to produce meals in partnership with the school, community caterers and volunteers and these will be sold via community fridges and freezers in the school library or lobby.
