Volunteers cook and learn!

Clockwise from left: Monisha, Ingrid, Sophie, Eric, Annie, Oliver, Nicola and Catherine

The Copleston Centre is a church in Peckham that normally hosts our Fit Foodie, Creative Therapies and Family Cooking sessions, but today was just for Mini Cooking Club staff and volunteers.

This week's team meeting saw a big collection of our volunteers coming together for a healthy eating lesson, kitchen hygiene and safety reminder, and finally eating a home-cooked meal.

We made sure we were all up to speed on kitchen safety and hygiene essentials like always washing hands before handling food, and never running with knives. But you all knew that!  We covered the Eat Well plate, essentially a nutritional guide for eating a balanced diet, which must include carbohydrates, protein, some fat and lots of fruits and vegetables (big surprise!).

Cecilia Belier, the Mini Cooking Club founder, cooked everyone delicious mandarin pasta (mixed with rocket, green beans, and seasoned with olive oil and Parmesan). This was followed by freshly sliced pineapple, which was bursting with flavour due to the fact that it is now in season.

Led by Cecilia, this meeting shows just how complex the charity has grown. From a small organisation consisting solely of Cecilia and two others, the staff and volunteers included people from the cooking, fundraising and media sides of the charity.

Cecilia reminded us of why the Mini Cooking Club is all about food. In previous roles working in the public health sector, she experienced a lot focus on nutrition and not nearly enough on cooking. Cecilia started the charity with the aim of teaching children and adults the joy of cooking, and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Near the end of the meeting, discussions moved a little sideways onto the Great British Allotment Challenge and the importance of 'digging for Britain' during the war. We talked about the sustainability of food, and whether any of us would reduce our meat and dairy consumption to cut emissions from farming.

We wondered if it was even necessary to eat meat at all, given the unethical treatment of livestock and poultry, and thought widespread community growing initiatives were probably the way forward.

There was a real sense of community and shared spirit that arose from the evening, and the conclusion of our debate was, quite simply, 'everything in moderation'. Thank you to Annie, Oliver, Monisha, Ingrid, Nicola, Eric and Sophie for coming, and thank you Cecilia for teaching and cooking - what a great evening.

Interview with Mini Cooking Club volunteer, Tim

Our wonderful volunteer, Tim, has been with the Mini Cooking Club ever since it started four years ago, and he is now one of our trustees. Tim tells us about what inspires him to volunteer.

What made you want to volunteer for a food charity?

Food plays such an important part in my life. Even after the worst day, you can always brighten it up with a delicious meal in the evening. 

What have you learnt since volunteering with The Mini Cooking Club?

It's easy to wrap yourself up in the London rat race: coming to the various classes, watching or helping people from all walks of life learn so much about nutrition and food preparation is both satisfying and humbling. I have learned not to take anything in life for granted, even the smallest of things, as we often do not appreciate how lucky we are.

What is your best memory/funny moment from the Mini Cooking Club?

Being in a class and witnessing the reaction of kids touching raw meat for the first time was quite something.

What would you say to people that are thinking about volunteering with us?

Make sure you understand that volunteering may look fun and "glamorous" from the outside - but ask yourself if you really want to give up  your weekends, or your evenings, to come and help others.
You need to be really passionate about what you're doing and what you want to achieve.

Thanks, Tim! 

Volunteering with The Mini Cooking Club

Volunteers play such an important role in our charity, without them we could not do the amazing work we are doing at the moment. The Mini Cooking Club runs cooking classes for children and families in the borough of Southwark.

Our volunteers are often university students studying a nutrition related degree that are looking to expand their skills and get on hands experience in the field, or professionals in the food industry wanting to give back to the community. However, you do not have to be an expert in nutrition or cooking to volunteer for us.

For the last couple of years, the Club has had a range of volunteers from all walks of life. Some are retired and looking to meet new people, while some are professionals who are tired of the London rat race and looking for new experiences. We even have chefs who want to put their skills at work even after cooking the whole day!

However, what all of our volunteers have in common is sharing their passion of food with others.

One of our volunteers says: “I’ve found that eating well can make a big difference to my health and would love to share this knowledge with other people”.

A typical day for a Mini Cooking Club Volunteer may consist of assisting in the kitchen, helping people with knife skills, talking about the nutritional content of food or writing food-related articles. Whatever your interest is, there is something for everybody – but what is also important is that you are “keen, socially motivated with an appetite for change.”

Volunteers say that they learn a lot of things related to food and nutrition. They say that they also find it humbling to witness people learning about this. However, being a volunteer brings with it a lot of memorable moments.

One volunteer says “Being in a class and witnessing the reaction of kids touching raw meat for the first time was quite something.”


If you are thinking of volunteering with The Mini Cooking Club and seeing what it is like to share the joy of cooking, our volunteers say: “Do it, it's a fantastic experience.”

For volunteering opportunities please contact us at info@theminicookingclub.org.uk or visit our website for more information.

By Yancy Jensen

Dragon Café Southwark re-opens for 2014!

The latest creative endeavour by Mental Fight Club, the Dragon Café, has been warmly welcomed back this year with new funding from the Maudsley Charity.

Every Monday in Borough, Southwark, the crypt in St Giles the Martyr Church becomes a hive of activity – thanks to an innovative and inspiring programme of events that explore issues relating to mental health, recovery and well-being. It’s very exciting to see this creative hub back and as busy as ever, offering artistic and physical activities for all to drop in and experience for free.

Sometimes discussing our mental health can seem like a daunting task. We may feel disconnected from our peers or embarrassed to admit that we’re feeling overwhelmed. That’s why it’s so important that spaces such as the Dragon Café exist, in order to offer an impartial and comprehensive range of discussions and activities dedicated to promoting good mental well-being.

The Café gives people the chance to work through recovery while trying new experiences to see what works for them as an individual, but also invites a social atmosphere where the assumed or real stigma that often surrounds mental health is pushed aside by frank and open conversation.

Suffering in silence should never be an option: the Dragon Café embraces originality and inclusion.  Fixtures include art workshops, book swaps and, this month, a class in mindfulness training!

Mindfulness can provide assistance with feelings of anxiety or stress by teaching us to ground ourselves in the moment.

Physical activities include massage, dancing, Tai Chi and, from April, boxing classes. Massage in particular can help to re-establish the connection between mind and body.

There is even a selection of yummy vegetarian food on offer, from moussaka to soup – all at affordable prices!

You can check out the Café’s weekly programme of events here. In the meantime, here are our top three tips to promote good mental health and wellbeing:

1.    Talk to someone – whether it is a friend, family member or mental health professional, remember there is always someone there for you, and you are not on your own.

2.    Eat well – eating healthy and nutritious food is proven to have positive effects on our mental health. Engaging with our food and cooking at home is a task that enables us to focus, while cooking with others can be a social and enjoyable experience!

3.    Be active – this doesn’t necessarily mean physical exercise. Creative outlets like the ones provided by the Dragon Café can provide a new way to engage with your mental health and take control.

Congratulations to the Dragon Café on their re-opening! Find out more about the Dragon Café.

By Emma Jones

Nutrition and Mental Health

Food plays a very important role in our day-to-day living. Food gives us energy and helps us maintain various essential physiological processes. Basically, it keeps us alive! 

However, when we talk about food giving us this range of benefits, we are talking about healthy food. By healthy food, we mean nutritious food that has been prepared at home and with carefully-selected nutritious produce. 

Eating healthy home cooked meals helps us maintain our bodies in good health. However, nutrition is not only related to the role it has to play with our physical health – it is also an essential component of maintaining our mental health.

Much of nutrition research surrounding mental health has been mainly been focused around exploring the role of individual nutritional components such as Vitamin B12 and Omega 3 Fatty acids in order to manage illness. Within this research, there have been positive results correlating good nutrition and the prevention of mental health illness (Compass Group, 2014). But what role does nutrition have on people already living with mental health concerns?

Firstly, eating a nutritious meal is not only about focusing on the food it itself. Yes, we should be thinking about eating a varied diet that includes eating our five-a-day, cutting our levels of saturated fat and consuming less salt.

But we should also be thinking about how important it is to share meals with people we care about and also about sharing meals with people we have just met. Preparing and eating food is also a social affair that has an immense impact on our social lives and our mental health.

There is just something about food that creates an amazing catalyst for us to create new relationships and nurture existing ones. However, for people living with mental health issues, doing this might be more of a challenge due to social, economic and environmental factors. But, it does not mean we must not do anything about it!

The Mini Cooking Club has been working with adults with mental health concerns for 3 years. We run 6-week courses where people can learn how to prepare healthy balanced meals, how to cook on a budget and general nutritional information.

We run our sessions at the Coplestone centre, which is a safe and conducive learning environment for people to meet new friends and be social. If you would like to volunteer with us in this project or would like to join a session have a look at our website: www.theminicooking.org.uk.

If you would like to know more about what healthy swaps you can make The Mental Health Foundation has some great resources. 

                                     By Jancy Hensen

Cooking with Mencap

The Mini Cooking Club had lots of fun at our first ever cooking session in partnership with Mencap charity! The Mini Cooking Club is a charity whose aim is to combat rising levels of obesity by providing free cooking sessions for children aged 5-11. Mencap works together with people with a learning disability, and supports them to live the life they choose.

The first session on Sunday 26th January was held at St Mary’s Primary School in Wimbledon. There were 18 children at this week’s session, a mixture of boys and girls and all with different levels of needs. It was raining quite a lot that day, but the mood inside the kitchen was much brighter.

Our founder, Cecilia Belier, who also works for Compass as Community Training Manager, led the session supported by our top volunteer Andrew Bresler. Compass is the biggest provider of catering and support services to schools, colleges and universities in the UK. Cecilia is very experienced in helping people with special needs and has run the community kitchen at Lambeth College for several years. She says, “Seeing the children always puts a smile on my face, especially if I’m feeling a bit flat!”

Andrew’s background is in finance and he is a recent addition to the Mini Cooking Club team. He says that teaching kids how to cook is something he’s always wanted to do, so volunteering as Cooking Assistant has been a great opportunity.

As this was week one, Cecilia made sure it was an introductory session to help assess each child’s level of cooking ability.  She and the kids learned to prepare and make a healthy vegetable salad for the main course and a fruit salad for dessert. The vegetable salad had a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice.

The children said that they found the class fun and informative. Children of all abilities were able to get involved and build their confidence with simple culinary tasks.

The Mencap team leader, Sue, was a great laugh and her energy kept us all having fun. She said that it’s really good for the kids to spend more time in the kitchen as it teaches them skills for life. It helps the children to become involved in the food process as it improves their understanding, from seeing where the food is bought, correct storage methods (fridge, freezer or cupboard), appropriate preparation methods and the importance of hygiene.

The second week’s menu featured African stew and apple crumble! Our mouths are watering just thinking about it.

If you want to volunteer or donate to the Mini Cooking Club, or sign up to one of our classes, please visit our website.    

Our founder, Cecilia Belier, making vegetable salad with the kids

By Catherine Heath

Deskilling Our Generation

Having walked the aisles of many supermarkets I have recently seen an upsurge of raw food convenient products. The pre-sliced vegetable section has grown since my last visit!

These pre-packaged vegetables are attractive as they provide an element of convenience in our already busy life. I mean who wants to spend 30 seconds grating a carrot when you can just buy it prepared.

But who is benefiting from this type of product? At what cost is it coming to us not just in terms of money but in terms of skills? What about the energy and resources used to package the products? What about the waste from the packaging? What effect does this kind of product have on our future generation and their ability to cook for themselves?

I bought a package of the already grated carrots and some loose carrots. I was curious to see what they tasted like and was also curious to compare the actual monetary cost.

The picture above speaks for itself. But, let me just say that when I opened the bag fresh was not the first word that came to mind! I didn’t even think to wash it as the product states that it is already washed.

As I stood there munching away, I noticed the allergy advice: may contain celery, egg, gluten, milk and soy. I ask why on earth would a carrot contain all these products?

Are we really saving that much time when we buy such products? And what are we doing with the time we save?

Buying convenient raw food products is coming to a cost, monetary and skill wise.

If you are interested in your child attending a free six-week cooking course, and live in the borough of Lambeth or Southwark, please visit the Mini Cooking Club website for more information, or email us.

By Yancy Jensen