Free family cooking courses for families across Bedford!

Wondering what to have for dinner again this evening? Cooking for a young family isn’t easy – time, money and picky eaters are a feature of everyday life for a lot of us.

Help is now at hand!

Community and environmental charity Groundwork East is launching a series of brand-new cooking sessions for families with young children across Bedford. The Grow it, Cook it, Share it sessions are completely free to attend and will focus on learning more about where our food comes from, what’s in season, savvy shopper tips and recipe ideas. It’s geared around cooking low-cost, nutritious meals that families can enjoy eating together.

Each week will cover a different topic such as growing herbs and salad on the windowsill, growing from leftovers and preparing and cooking food with young children. There’ll be recipes to take home and try, with dishes inspired by Bedford’s diverse communities.

Families that attend all sessions will be gifted a cooking starter pack featuring a blender, measuring cups and spoons, food growing gear and a cook book. The aim is for the sessions to light a spark with families that growing food and cooking together should be fun, affordable and a time to cherish.

The team from Groundwork leading the courses are sustainability experts, and sessions will highlight how shopping local and reducing food waste is good for our pockets and the planet. Like a lot of the country, food poverty is a pressing issue for a growing number of people in Bedford with research from the Trussell Trust showing one in six Bedford residents live in food poverty (figures taken from 2023). Understanding this context and that buying and cooking nutritious food for a family can be overwhelming, the sessions are fully-funded by the Food Matters, community grant fund and open to anyone with a young family living in Bedford Borough.

We are really excited to be offering this new course to families in Bedford. We will learn lots about growing food at home, even if you do not have outdoor space, and preparing tasty meals together as a family

Laura Ferrier, Project Officer, Groundwork East