- Time together uninterrupted by other people or phones
- Improving confidence through learning new skills
- Encouraging adults and children to try new foods and activities increases their willingness to try other things together that they wouldn’t usually
- Bringing in hard-to-reach people. For example, schools have told us that some parents who have attended our courses with their children have not previously engaged in other ways
- Increasing family cohesion
- Better behaviour and study results from better-fed children
- Teaching children practical fine motor and numeracy skills
Meet Julie
Tell us about yourself
My name is Julie Clay and I am the founder of Food etc. I have lived in Bedford for over 25 years and raised our two now grown up children here. Please connect on Linkedin to find out more about me.
What attracted you to setting up Food etc?
I’ve always been interested in cooking and food and although I had no qualifications in teaching or food I wanted to share my passion with other people to show them that cooking healthy, inexpensive food doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive and can be fun too.
What’s your favourite thing about Food etc?
As an evolving organisation we are constantly learning and I love that. We’re always meeting new people and discovering how what we do benefits all sorts of people in different ways. When we were initially thinking about delivering cookery workshops we thought it was simply about helping people to eat better. But we’ve realised it’s much more than that. It brings people together who wouldn’t usually spend quality time together, it brings mental and physical health benefits and it empowers people to take more control over aspects of their lives to name just a few, but a powerful few.
What has been your greatest challenge?
Time and resources. We have lots of ideas and opportunities but not enough hours in the day so having to choose between things when we’d like to do nearly all of them.
What would you say to someone considering volunteering with Food etc?
Please give it a go! Most of our volunteers are involved in delivering cookery workshops which requires around 3 hours a week but we have other people helping with admin, marketing and admin for example, so we would almost definitely need you whatever your skills and experience.
Benefits of working with Food etc
Help Food Etc
Donate to Food Etc. to help us teach families how to cook healthy, affordable meals and make better food choices. Your support makes a difference!
