Often, when a person without a home moves in to accommodation, one of the challenges they can face is being able to cook for themselves.

That’s why, in December we were delighted to welcome Yvonne Thomson, CEO, and Dave Taylor, Head of Community Outreach and Education Programmes at UK Harvest to teach six residents of Caritas Anchor House to prepare a two-course meal from scratch.

Before the food preparation began, Dave headed a discussion about what is meant by a balanced diet, how to maintain one on a budget and with the ingredients and equipment available. Basic food hygiene and knife safety skills were also covered.

At lunchtime, 50 residents and members of staff were treated to a vegan butternut squash soup for starters, followed by a vegan curry – healthy, delicious food which catered for all.

Yvonne Thomson, said, “Working together with Caritas Anchor House has been an absolute delight; the residents and staff were incredibly accommodating and enthusiastic.

“We all worked together in the kitchen and had great fun, learning about vegan nutrition, cooking and feeding those who live at the project.”

James Grech, Deputy Team Leader at Caritas Anchor House, who heads up our health and wellbeing activities, said, “An important part of our programmes at Caritas Anchor House is to facilitate hands-on, practical workshops with partners such as UK Harvest to ensure all residents have the knowledge and training to lead healthy lifestyles in the future.

“This programme is especially vital as we are looking to begin the building of our new residents’ kitchen this year, which will be instrumental in teaching our residents how to independently maintain a healthy diet.”

UK Harvest’s mission is to eliminate hunger and food waste through education and the redistribution of good-quality surplus food, and as such, the meals were made from ingredients saved from landfill.

Caritas Anchor House is delighted to regularly receive food donations from food waste charities and local supermarkets, and help contribute to the prevention of food waste by providing much-enjoyed, nutritious meals to people experiencing homelessness.