Idea in a Nutshell

With the money they have won, Govan Community Project will deliver a six week cooking exchange, which focuses on bringing the climate conversation to cultural foods. We work with asylum seekers and refugees who come from different food traditions. Our community is full of skilled home cooks already and throughout this program we would create space for a cooking exchange. Starting with some information about the link between climate change and food, focusing on seasonality and also the link between the animal agriculture industry and climate, we would encourage each chef to take one traditional recipe which holds cultural or nostalgic importance to them, and adapt it based on climate issues. That is each chef would adapt their recipe to be vegetarian and would be encouraged to incorporate seasonal veg and local produce.

Over the course of 6 weeks, 6 home cooks- supported by one staff member and one volunteer- would have an opportunity to teach their dish to their peers. This would allow for skill sharing between different communities allowing their peers to learn new techniques and traditions. As well as allowing each chef to gain experience and confidence facilitating and teaching their peers.

The project would allow each chef to teach their dish whilst the other cooks followed along, each session would end in the group eating a meal together, as well as taking their dish home to further share their new dish/knowledge with a wider network.

The project would culminate in a zine workshop, each participant would be encouraged to represent and illustrate their adapted recipe. This could be done in any way which they feel would represent their food and reach their community - e.g. could have each recipe in their language and translated, can add printing or pictures. The zine would then be printed and shared within the GCP community and wider.

The project would create space for those not normally included in the climate conversation- asylum seekers and refugees, speakers of English as a second language, mothers etc- to not only be involved in the climate conversation but using their wealth of traditional food knowledge actively be part of creating a solution. The project also provides space for peer learning, allowing each chef to leave the project with new recipes, skills, and food understanding, as well as allowing each chef to gain confidence and practical experience teaching and leading a small group.