The Virtual Cooking Club
The Pitch
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| overhead | £794.66 |
| Ingredients & packaging | £1,325 |
| Staff | £780 |
| Volunteer costs | £40 |
Beneficiaries
125 people
Expected impact
With this grant, we expect to positively impact the health, connectedness and life chances of 25 families. We will introduce 25 families to new foods and flavours and encourage them to try cooking and eating new dishes. We will inspire up to 75 children to take an interest in food and cooking, and show up to 50 parents that cooking with their kids doesn't have to be messy, expensive or scary! The kits will also introduce 25 families to Square Food Foundation and the services and activities we offer. We know that attending a class in a new place for the first time can be intimidating. The kits are a way for families to get to know Square Food from their homes, and pave the way for them to sign up to classes in the future. The kits also provide a lever for families to meet and engage with each other over social media where they share pictures of their recipes, make suggestions & ask questions.
Track record
Square Food Foundation launched the virtual cooking club during lockdown, to supplement its SquareMeals daily delivery service for local families. The cooking club helped us stay connected with the families we were already working with before the pandemic, provide them with a fun activity to alleviate the tension and boredom of lockdown, and keep people cooking! Thanks to support from individual donors, and grants from trusts and foundations, the virtual cooking club has grown and we now deliver to community hubs across South Bristol. Right now, we're delivering 180 kits per week. Feedback from families includes: "Once again, another meal to add to our like list! 👍 Thank you so much. Mummy was chef tonight...and definitely noticed how much harder it is to get her to try food when she hasn't cooked it, but 3 almost clean plates later and smiling faces all round"