Youth Food Ambassadors course success

This October half-term, we delivered our first Youth Food Ambassador programme for 12-17 year olds across Lambeth. We had a fantastic time on this 5 day course which equipped young people with skills, support and seed funding to learn about food and unleash their creativity on a food project!

Monday featured a session on the importance of food within communities, followed by a cookery masterclass to ensure all our young learners were familiarised with our commercial kitchen. We finished the day with an introduction to nutrition from our in-house nutritionist, Yasmin.

Tuesday included a visit from local business, Jollof House Kitchen, located in POP Brixton and a presentation about his journey as a young person interested in food. He discuss his experience of setting up a successful business and his insights fueled curiosity among our young people, setting the tone for their upcoming projects.

We incorporated low-cost cooking and budget planning into sessions on Wednesday, to support participants to explore economical meal preparation and they had the opportunity to experiment with a pre-designed budget-friendly recipe for their lunch, gaining confidence as they honed their culinary skills. The following day, they unleashed their creativity by crafting their own recipes, which was a success!

All young people also took part in age-appropriate training in crucial kitchen safety skills with our younger participants gaining a certificate in KS2 Food Handling and our older participants completing a full Level 2 Food Safety & Hygiene Certificate. All participants completed their training and will now be able to use these certificates to access future opportunities such as paid work in the food sector.

With the eagerly anticipated Food Fair on Friday, Thursday was a day of preparation. Having undergone planning earlier in the week, the participants enthusiastically trialled their product concepts, fine-tuning their branding and recipes to ensure everything was perfectly prepared for the big day. They had creative freedom to present their unique products in a manner that would leave their guests impressed.

The Youth Food Ambassador course rounded up spectacularly on Friday with a Food Fair at Brockwell Greenhouses, with the young people showcasing their carefully curated products to their friends and family. Among the culinary delights, we had homemade jerk sauce, banana muffins, refreshing lemonade, cheese and potato flatbreads and a taco station! We loved getting to know our budding young chef’s and guiding them through this experience and hope that they all felt proud of their achievements.

If you or a young person you know would be interested in Youth Food Ambassadors, follow us on Social Media or subscribe to our Newsletter for details about upcoming opportunities!