Cooking up a treat – League of Meals

A recipe for success: League of Meals chefs get ready to cook

A cooking club for older adults is the latest foodie initiative to make its way to the borough. The new project, known as League of Meals, focuses on Hackney’s older, and often most isolated members, bringing them together to cook, learn new skills and socialise with other like-minded folk.

“League of Meals initially set out to tackle isolation and malnutrition in older adults,” says organiser Johanna Kollmann, whose project focuses on the cooking of fresh, seasonal meals. Central to the club’s ethos is the promotion of good, real food as a means to activating local community, with the benefit that it’s healthy too.

With donations from Hackney City Farm, Food Hall and the Co-operative supermarket among others, League of Meals further aims to tackle food waste, making use of produce that would otherwise be thrown away.

“We felt strongly about addressing how to use seasonal ingredients and making the most of what you have, rather than creating more waste,” affirms Kollmann. “With less public money available, projects that activate local communities and create new relationships have potential for long-term impact.”

Indeed, in communities that increasingly rely on cholesterol-inducing ready meals and expensive takeaways, League of Meals is certainly going some way to promote home cooking as the healthier, more cost-effective alternative, showing that great food can be made out of what is seasonal and available.

Set up in a social housing estate community, League of Meals hopes to build a stronger network among the older community in the area, encouraging others to cook and socialise through food.

Bringing a local perspective to wider social issues of isolation, malnutrition and food waste, this latest initiative shows what can be achieved through the simple act of cooking and sharing food.

For more information on volunteering at their fortnightly cooking clubs, or if you’re a member of the public looking for a tasty dinner at their monthly supper clubs, contact Johanna Kollman on 0207 490 4573 or johanna@sidekickstudios.net.

For more information visit League of Meals.