How The MAZI Project is tackling food disparity and providing a lifeline for Bristol’s vulnerable youth

With demand for support at an all-time high, The MAZI Project has launched its biggest Crowdfunder yet to provide nutritious meals, cooking skills and community for Bristol’s vulnerable young people. Ahead of World Hunger Day, Sarah Rowlands (pictured left) explores why this urgent campaign matters now more than ever – and how you can help.

Outraged by the government’s pitiful efforts to provide children with reliable and nutritious provisions during the Covid lockdowns, Melanie Vaxevanakis, the founder of The MAZI Project, set out to address the food disparity in Bristol. ‘When I was looking at the boxes’ Melanie recalls ‘I was seeing that food poverty is so much more than not having access to enough food, it’s not having the opportunity to experience the power of food.

The MAZI Project supports care leavers, young asylum seekers, youth recovering from homelessness and young people fleeing domestic violence. ‘Our young people come to us from organisations like 1625. By supporting Mazi you’re supporting over 20 different organisations making sure young people have access to good food.

On Thursday 1 May, The MAZI Project launched their biggest Crowdfunder yet, fundraising events will be happening in the lead-up to World Hunger Day on Wednesday 28 May!

Through meal boxes, an accredited cooking course, cooking workshops and pop-ups The MAZI Project empowers vulnerable 16-25-year-olds through food and education.

‘We are trying to build this standard of food provision that should exist nationally and across the world. It isn’t okay to provide empty calories to people because they’re being fed. We are creating that link between mental health, nourishment and nutrition and making sure everyone can have access to its benefits.’

Melanie explained how, through The MAZI Project, vulnerable young people can experience the comfort and connection that sharing a meal brings. ‘Our meal kits serve two people, we encourage it to be shared. Through our community kitchen, we have our monthly supper club that young people can come to. They don’t even need to even cook but it’s just about them sharing a meal, having a safe space, it’s social.’

‘With our cooking events and classes, it’s always us eating together, taking the time to make the table nice, to create it as a moment instead of it being rushed.’ She explains, ‘The power of food is ingrained within me, it’s ingrained within Lily, our programme director, within our trustees, within the whole organisation. Our mission is that every young person feels love through food.’

Prepared in their Bedminster test kitchen, The MAZI Project distributes healthy, delicious meal kits to 90 young people suffering from food insecurity across the city. Melanie outlined the amazing work her team does every week to provide that lifeline.

‘Every week we text the young people with a selection of 20 super seasonal recipes. They’ll pick up to three, then our volunteers every Tuesday will pre-weigh the ingredients and then we’ll deliver it to their doors. We work with small-scale, local producers, especially during harvest season to create a menu that works with what is being grown.’

The meal boxes offer choice and flexibility as the young people are free to use the fresh, locally sourced ingredients to cook whatever they like. ‘The recipes are there for guidance but we really love intuitive cooking and want to encourage that, it shows confidence.’

The MAZI project runs an accredited cooking course for young people looking to develop skills and knowledge in the kitchen. Melanie explained ‘It’s all about building young people’s confidence, making them feel like they understand seasonal cooking. They get an accredited qualification from ASDAN, that can go towards a life skills qualification and it can go on their CV.’

The cooking course opens up opportunities for young people, Melanie tells me, ‘We actually got a young person into part-time employment and signposted him to the 12 week ‘How to be a Chef Course’ with Square
Food Foundation. He’s now got a job at Frankies on North Street that we are mentoring him through!’

May for Mazi

Melanie discussed the upcoming events taking place as part of this month’s Crowdfunder. MAZI’s Charity Dinner with Noor Murad is taking place on Wednesday 21 May, at The Mount Without.

‘We’ve got some amazing chefs Josh Eggleton, Noor Nurad and Dina Macki. It will be really beautiful. Two of the headline chefs are women and also brown women, which I think is really important to show the beautiful diversity within cooking and food in England!’

‘On the last day of the crowd funder, to mark World Hunger Day, we’re going to have a community event at the kitchen. We definitely want a load of people to come down. We’re going to have Bianchis food truck there with all of the profits going to Mazi!’

Head down to the community kitchen in Bedminster on Wednesday 28 May for music, delicious food and to celebrate Mazi’s efforts to tackle hunger in the city! Get involved.

Find out more about Square Food Foundation’s How To Be A Chef mentoring programme on this blog.

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