UKHarvest’s 10 hours Cookathon for schools and families celebrating an inspiring collaboration with cost effective cooking

Sussex based charity, UKHarvest’s Food & Fuel team and the spectacular staff at NourishEd are celebrating an inspired collaboration that has taken place over the last 3 months between UKHarvest and Cadent, the UKs leading provider of gas and UK Power Networks, bringing electricity to over 8.4 million homes nationwide.

An exhilarating and engaging educational programme has been cleverly created and skilfully rolled out to schools across Sussex and the UK with a combination of in-school sessions and a wealth of online lessons and resources provided to all participants.

According to recent government statistics, 3.26 million household in UK were living in fuel poverty in 2022. This number is set to increase to 3.54 million households in 2023, 14.4% of UK households. With the cost-of-living crisis bashing down the door, and fuel prices rising quickly, support and education to help all households has never been timelier.The chefs and food waste experts at UKHarvest and NourishEd have visited a range of schools to help bring food waste and power efficiency expertise to hundreds of eager future cooks, chef and foodies across Sussex and the UK with some incredibly delicious results. The programme has reached far and wide, engaging with students from a range of backgrounds, ages and abilities to bring a fully accessible and highly adaptable selection of cooking activities aiming to bring support to those who are not only experiencing the challenges of food insecurity but also to those who are keen and eager to learn and adapt their cooking styles to meet the current economic climate.

As a culmination of this the hard work and dedication from everyone involved, we are hosting an epic 10-HOUR LIVE COOKATHON, sign up for a reminder, taking place on Wednesday 29th March 2023, streaming live on UKHarvest’s YouTube channel through our website or via YouTube from 10am – 8pm.

With over forty schools nationwide signed up and ready to cook, totalling more than one thousand students, the first session, streamed live from our cooking hub on the South Coast runs from 10-12pm will be led by UKHarvest’s Food & Fuel leads, Simon Thresher and Sian Giorgio. This innovative initiative will include a live, interactive cook-along streamed into schools across Sussex as well as nationwide, offering expert advice and hands on cooking skills for students in KS3. With most of the ingredients and equipment being supplied by the Food & Fuel team, students and their teachers will create a specially crafted menu that even the most decerning gastronome would be proud of.

From 12pm – 6pm the Food & Fuel team will be interviewing a host of fantastic names in the world of food, wellbeing and fitness, from UKHarvest’s CEO, Yvonne Thomson discussing her vision for coping with and managing household energy efficiency to local Taco Box chef, Martin Price cooking with a mystery box of ingredients talking about communities and food support, as well as Rory Macdonald, nutritionist at WittFit discussing the importance of food and physical wellbeing whilst cooking white fish with cauliflower rice and roasted vegetables. There is the additional of expert advice on cooking on a budget, using leftovers and cooking to aid your mood and mental health.

The finale of the Cookathon, taking place 6pm until 8 pm, sees Simon and Sian culminate their day’s cooking with a family friendly ‘fakeaway’ offering a guided cooking session helping a family of four cook a feast of Indian dishes using fresh authentic ingredients and ensuring the whole family eats like royalty.

For more information, and links to sign up to some or all of the Cookathon events please visit our events page, follow the live stream on 29th March via our YouTube channel and follow us on @ukharvest facebook.com/ukharvest @ukharvest for any updates, and news of upcoming events.