Last year, Dr Ada Garcia and her colleagues published a narrative review on community cooking courses and their impact on people’s confidence to cook and their eating behaviour. The review wasn’t systematic, so it looks at a relatively small number of studies. However, if you are looking for academic evidence on the impact of community …
Cookery skills
Cooking skills blog 24: Cooking skills research: cooking, confidence and enjoyment
Cooking skills blog 23: Guest blog by Jacqui McDowell – The social value of cooking and eating together
This week, my CFHS colleague Jacqui reflects on the social aspects of cooking and eating. ‘Who will you eat Christmas dinner with this year? Will you or someone else do the cooking? Me, I’ll be at home with my partner and his learning disabled sister. She will be peeling the spuds, carrots and parsnips, while …
Cooking skills blog 22: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: Guest blog by Jacqui McDowell: ‘The impact puzzle’
This week my colleague Jacqui McDowell (who has led on supporting our cooking skills study group on planning the evaluation of their cooking courses) reflects on the challenge of finding the perfect methods or tools to find out the difference your course is making. ‘We all know that we have to evaluate our cooking skills …
What’s cooking in Scotland? Part Three
This guide is for anyone who runs, manages or commissions cooking skills courses for people within low-income communities or who are vulnerable. It will also be useful for those designing or running train the trainer cooking skills courses.
Cooking skills blog 21: new CFHS guide – What’s cooking in Scotland? Part three
Last week, we launched a new guide What’s Cooking in Scotland? Part Three at our cooking skills learning exchange in Edinburgh. Around 40 people attended this, many of whom are running cooking courses within community and voluntary sector organisations in low-income communities. The new guide provides tools and ideas to help you think in more …
Community cooking groups: supporting people who are struggling to have enough food to get them/their families through the week
Do you run or manage cooking courses within low income communities in Scotland? Do you sometimes find participants are struggling to have enough food to get them through the week? Do have 15 minutes to complete an online survey? Community Food and Health (Scotland) are undertaking a project exploring the methods which cooking course trainers …
Cooking skills blog 20: Are cooking skills courses any use to people experiencing food poverty?
Many practitioners running cooking courses across Scotland try to ensure these focus on preparing tasty, affordable healthy meals, using ingredients that can be bought in the shops that course participants already use. However, what do you do if you become aware that someone on your course might not be able to afford these budget recipes, …
Cooking skills blog 19: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: assessments, quizzes and photos
Our cooking skills study group recently met to share their ideas and discuss their evaluation challenges. All of them are confident about using at least two approaches or sources of evaluation such as: Taking observation notes during the course; and Using a participant self-reporting approach by asking participants to fill in questionnaires before and after the …
CFHS cooking skills learning exchange 2016
Our cooking skills learning exchange took place at the Apex Grassmarket Hotel in Edinburgh on 10 November 2016. The event was aimed at those who plan to, or already run, manage or commission community cooking skills courses in low-income communities in Scotland, and who were looking to improve the way they run, review and assess …