More cooking on a budget workshops planned

16th May 2022

Our Better Together team have been pleased to support the Harleston Info Plus group run their “cooking on a budget workshops” this month and we are pleased to announce and another series of similar workshops will take place in July and September this year.

Barely a day has gone by in the last few weeks where stories about the cost of living crisis has not featured prominently on the news. Earlier this week, households were warned that the UK’s “golden era” of cheap food is over, as official figures published on Friday pointed to the toll of the cost of living crisis, with two in five people buying less food to get by.

The head of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents all the major supermarkets, said that “consumers are in for a difficult time” as global food prices are at a record high, propelled by rising energy and transport costs.

Over the last few weeks, Pam Spicer from Harleston Info Plus and Better Together Norfolk has helped pilot these sessions, with the most recent workshop happening last Friday. Some people stayed at the end to socialise and enjoy the food they created during the morning, others took the food to enjoy at home.

The cooking on a budget workshops scheduled for July and September will be delivered by a Norfolk County Council trained tutor and all ingredients will be provided for free. The events are open to anyone over the age of 19 and a complimentary recipe book will be given to participants at the end of the course. The demonstration for the September course will take place at the Harleston Food Festival.

Although Voluntary Norfolk’s Better Together service is primarily tasked with tackling social isolation in Norwich, South Norfolk, Great Yarmouth and Broadland, it also provides a wider package of support for individuals, where loneliness is a symptom of other more complex challenges, such as caring responsibilities, mental or physical ill health or debt.

For more information about the kind of support Better Together provides, please click here.