We at Kids Kitchen’s East London hub have loads of exciting news to share with you this month! We have been very grateful to receive funding from Tesco Stronger Starts to host regular cooking sessions in Leytonstone at Good Shepherd Studios and from Waltham Forest Council‘s William Morris Ward to put on a pop-up Christmas event at Priory Court Community Centre. We have also been given funding by the council to expand our Recipe Bag project with food banks across the borough.
Cooking Sessions in Leytonstone
GOOD SHEPHERD STUDIOS
Leytonstone, E11 3DR
10am-12pm
Second Thursday of the Month
14 Nov, 12 Dec, 9 Jan, 13 Feb, 13 March
We will be setting up cooking sessions in the Good Shepherd Studio’s Annex, which is right next to their fabulous cafe, Back To Ours where you can grab coffee and cake!
Everyone is welcome at a Kids Kitchen session. It’s a great way to introduce your child to a wide range of healthy and delicious recipes using seasonal ingredients, and learn how to get kids of all ages involved in the kitchen. But more importantly, our sessions are a welcoming environment where you can meet new friends and have fun with your little one – plus everyone gets lunch!
We are able to host this session as we received a grant from Tesco Stronger Starts, in partnership with Groundwork UK. It’s a scheme which gives community projects like us funding to help to give children across the UK a stronger start in life. The grants will help schools and children’s groups provide nutritious food and healthy activities that support young people’s physical health and mental wellbeing.
Booking is essential for all our sessions. It’s £5 per child and this includes lunch for both you and them. Free spaces are available to anyone who needs them – just use code ‘FREEKK’ when you book. We also have a 20% discount code ‘KK20’. If you feel you need this for a sibling ticket or low wage discount, please feel free to use it. You can book here via our East London Hub www.kidskitchen.org.uk/east-london
Cooking Together – Christmas Family Fun Pop-Up Event
PRIORY COURT COMMUNITY CENTRE
11 Priory Ct, London E17 5NB
1 December 2024
10.30am-12.30pm
We are excited to announce a special Christmas themed pop-up cooking session for families with young children to kick start the festive season on Sunday 1 December 2024 at Priory Court Community Centre E17 5NB. Join us to make delicious food from scratch, where everyone gets involved – think of it as messy play with food! We’ll be making edible letters to Santa wraps using seasonal ingredients. We will also have an array of other activities on offer, such as crafts, stories, music and even a toy swap!
We are grateful to Waltham Forest Council’s William Morris Ward for awarding us funding to run the session. By combining a fun activity for families to do together; a healthy, tasty meal; and practical hands-on support, Kids Kitchen is an excellent way of approaching challenges such as food poverty, social isolation, health inequalities and our impact on the planet. By bringing families together, we support one another and we build a stronger, more connected sense of community.
Booking is essential for all our sessions. It’s £5 per child and this includes lunch for both you and them. Free spaces are available to anyone who needs them – just use code ‘FREEKK’ when you book. We also have a 20% discount code ‘KK20’. If you feel you need this for a sibling ticket or low wage discount, please feel free to use it. You can book here via our East London Hub www.kidskitchen.org.uk/east-london
Recipe Bag Project
We have also been very busy with our Recipe Bag Project. Waltham Forest Council have given us funding to continue with our very successful recipe club, where we provide bags with all the ingredients needed to make a nutritious meal from scratch to families attending food banks across the borough. We are distributing 50 bags a week to people who are really struggling, with recipes including a warming chilli to a comforting spaghetti bolognese, along with suggestions of what to do with the leftovers or tips on how to prepare if you don’t have adequate cooking facilities.
We work with Pl84U-Al Safa who are based at the Epicentre Community Centre in Leytonstone and provide an essential service to residents who are in desperate need. Saira Begum Mir is a force of nature and local legend, and her team work tirelessly with so much warmth and care for what they do. It is absolutely amazing to see. The good humour and grace with which they operate brings a ray of light to every single one of the recipients that walk through the door.
We did our first drop off to The Drive on 7 November and we were greeted with great warmth from the lovely community there. Run by Martin Spaff, The Drive is very much community led, with most volunteers and recipients living in the estate (and most of the volunteers being recipients themselves). There was a wide range of produce on offer, from tins of beans, vegetables and fish, to freshly baked bead, fresh fruit and veg, and even cut flowers, to clothing, furniture and other bits and bobs.