Food for Thought

In our latest blog post Miriam Delogu, of The Circle Project Bristol talks about their new cooking workshops and the power of food to build connected, resilient and sustainable neighbourhoods.

The Circle Project is showcasing how local communities can be truly sustainable; environmentally, economically and socially. By focusing our work in the neighbourhood we live – connecting businesses, community organisations, schools and residents our aim is to raise awareness about climate change, the global food challenge and see what we can do as citizens when we work together. In order to create social and behavioural change, we need to build equal platforms for people to share and learn.

At The Circle Project we wanted to deliver a practical workshop that combined food, building community and partnerships – the three pillars we built our vision on. And so Food For Thought was born.

Food for Thought is a cooking workshop with a twist where we explore cooking from scratch using seasonal produce, meeting new people and learning new skills – all ways that you can take action towards a sustainable food city. The twist is that the recipes are created in teams with our guidance using the ingredients available. The sessions are run in a fun game show way to encourage teamwork, creativity and resourcefulness.

On the 13 February we held our first session. Guests were welcomed at The Sundial Kitchen where we had on display seasonal produce and a worldly inspired pantry to entice our cooks in designing their dishes. Fresh produce was bought from local and independent shops such as Five Acre Farm, Hugo’s, Zero Green and Ashton Fruit. During the evening we discussed the benefits of buying local and seasonal produce and how it contributes to living more sustainably.

We paired teams randomly on purpose to give the opportunity to meet someone new, with a different set of cooking skills and palate and the challenge to work together in creating a dish from scratch to be shared with everyone.

The celebration of every workshop is the coming together after the cooking session and eating the meal we’ve all cooked for one another. An opportunity to share the skills and recipes with everyone. By the laughter and smiles we witnessed, we were proud of what we had created.

Food For Thought is back at The Sundial Kitchen on the 29 February at 11am and we hope to bring this monthly to BS3. You can take action to support a local community food project by booking your space here. Please note that Food For Thought is run as a vegetarian and vegan cooking workshop to promote and discover that cooking delicious, healthy meals doesn’t have to cost the earth making it inclusive for all to enjoy being respectful to all religions.

As we strive for economic sustainability at The Circle Project, we need to have a stable revenue to sustain the work we do. Having said that, we believe cooking from scratch, creating healthy and nutritious meals and meeting new people are also important and we are working on supporting those who can’t afford the sessions. To find out more about this please email us at thecirclebristol@gmail.com.

Miriam Delogu is the Founder of The Circle Project Bristol. The Circle Project is a community organisation bringing people together through food to help build a resilient and sustainable BS3.