This May marked five years since we registered Travelling Kitchen as a Community Interest Company. We were hoping to celebrate with a small party for those that have worked with us and helped us along the way but the restrictions around Covid-19 has meant that will have to wait for another day. We are however proud to report that since we started we have worked with 21 primary schools in Bristol and the surrounding area and 3 secondary schools ,working with thousands of children. Approximately 800 children a year have benefitted from our workshops. We’ve also run workshops in a range of settings from community centres and sheltered accommodation for the older generation, all aimed at bringing people together to cook and share good food.
Covid 19 has meant that we haven’t been able to work in schools and other settings, however this hasn’t meant that we’ve stopped cooking. Hannah More primary school approached us for some recipe ideas for the food boxes they’ve been providing for families with support from the Friends of Hannah More, Fare Share and the Quartet Foundation This led to us cooking ready meals to go out with the boxes. Families have received a different meal every week from Vegetable Dhansak to Cannellini Bean goulash together with a recipe and ingredients to recreate the meal again at home. Thanks to ingredients provided by the Bristol Food Union (and a place to cook by The Cauldron Restaurant in St Werburghs) we’ve been able to extend this and to provide meals for the Community Food Share which the brilliant staff from St Barnabas primary school set up for their children and families. We’re now cooking up to 200 portions a week.
When we set up Travelling Kitchen we were determined that our workshops would be hands on and that obviously presents challenges at the current time. We’re really missing working with children and families. However the coming months we’re looking at ways to work in a Covid safe way and to another five years of cooking snd sharing food with the lovely people of Bristol.