Karen Pritchard has been accepted onto the Tesco/FareShare Community Cookery School Scheme which was set up in conjunction with chef Jamie Oliver, in 2019 and will take place virtually over the next several months. Once the training is completed, Karen will be expected to roll out this training to 15 other people. The course is free and all equipment and food is provided for (by way of vouchers) and if any of these are leftover, they can be put towards a community endeavour (in our case, Chat-tea).

As Karen has been working closely with organisations through MADCAT, Karen will be training some of their volunteers, (as they will also be in a good position to roll out further cookery teaching), as well as some of our Chat Tea clients.

Long-term, the plan is to equip more and more local people, especially families, with the skills and knowhow to create nutritious, healthy and cost effective meals for themselves - it is acknowledged that Chat-Tea will not be able to run forever, so the aim is to begin offering practical support where possible, to enable more people to be able to cater for themselves, even on a tight budget.

From tiny acorns, mighty oaks do grow...and it is hoped that this project may be the start of a much wider element of community engagement, and will also help Karen to build closer links with families, maybe even towards a fresh expression of church at some stage - so please keep her in your prayers as we ask that the Lord guide her in her endeavours to engage with those who need our support currently.