Hear from one of our participants about his experience on our 6-week Nourish course – community cookery for better mental health.
We spoke to Chris, a long-standing and much-loved participant at the Community Kitchen. Nourish explores the ways that cooking and time in nature can support better mental health – building up routine and feelings of confidence, getting creative with flavours, eating healthier snacks & meals and connecting with others around our shared dining table. His experiences at the Community Kitchen have left him feeling motivated, confident, helped him reduce food waste, and taught him how to cook and eat healthily during periods of poor mental health.
“My experiences with Nourish have been overwhelmingly positive. The way the community chefs teach and share is lovely, motivating and validating. There may be a few mistakes along the way, but that’s okay. I can be honest at the Community Kitchen, I don’t have to make an excuse for a bad mental health day, and I can let the team know I am struggling. The space improves my mental health and the course became part of a routine I looked forward to. I have continued to make many of the recipes I learnt at home from soups to cakes to poached eggs.
I was first interested in getting involved in Nourish, as my food and mood are very linked. With my mental health, I can sometimes go into hibernation and during these periods I don’t eat a balanced diet. So, I came here to gain more knowledge, especially about reusing leftovers and using staple ingredients in my cupboard for a variety of recipes. I can sometimes get a bit paranoid about best-before dates, but learning about this through the kitchen has helped me make use of all my ingredients at home.
I love making my food look beautiful and presenting it well. But sometimes I worry about and focus on it, same with the timings of recipes and having access to all the right ingredients. But the Kitchen has allowed me to stay calmer with food and focus on enjoying the process, preparing some things in advance and not worrying if I have the exact ingredient or if I get the timing exactly right. I now have more confidence to make a meal out of a variety of ingredients and make swaps in recipes. Meaning if I do start to struggle with my mental health I can still make healthy meals at home. Additionally, I have learnt how to reduce my food waste, through making delicious recipes with bags of frozen veg and fruit, stocking up my store cupboards with basics and using my freezer to freeze leftovers.
I particularly enjoy sitting down as a group at the end and eating our meals together, having that conversation and banter across the table. It’s a moment to enjoy your cooking and realise that a small mistake you made during the process doesn’t impact the final product. There are often chats about the food around the table, people sharing what they liked and disliked. It is wonderful to have that wider group moment at the start over a hot drink and at the end over food, where you can share how your week has been and provide each other with mutual support.
I love taking the food away and sharing it with neighbours, friends, other community groups I attend or workshops I run. Everyone remarks on how delicious the food is, it’s lovely. Sharing with neighbours is particularly good because when they make something you often get a lovely parcel at your door as well!
Through the Community Kitchen, I have started to attend and use other local services, such as the Fitzherbert project, where I can go and get a similar experience, by eating around a shared table with other members of the community.
Also Going to Stanmer Wellbeing Gardens during the course opened my eyes to other projects and groups, whilst I have been many times I hadn’t realised all the community gardens and projects existed.
Only yesterday I incorporated my experiences at the Community Kitchen into a drama group I’m attending at the recovery college. We were performing improv of nursery rhymes, specifically Goldilocks, I was doing ‘Mommy Bear Daddy Bear’ and I said “Overnight porridge oats must have been to the Community Kitchen.” It caused a big laugh.
A big thank you to all the staff and volunteers at the kitchen for all the support and work. I am going to proudly display my Nourish certificate on the fridge.”
Help us continue to provide our community cookery groups:
- Donations: Your financial support can help ensure the kitchen’s continued operation and reach more individuals in need.
- Attend a class: Buy a ticket for one of our evening and weekend classes and learn new cooking techniques from some of Brighton & Hove’s best chefs and cookery teachers.
- Hire the space: Host your next event at the Community Kitchen and contribute to its mission. We host Team Building events, hen do’s, community groups and parties.
