News

Created in response to a national drive to tackle food insecurity in the school holidays, Kitchen Social aims to give young Londoners a safe place to socialise and receive a free healthy meal.

Taking place in the Chartwells development kitchen in Lewisham, executive chef Dan Lucas and regional training & development chef Charlotte Harris delivered workshops to ten London-based hubs from the local area.  

Lucas said: “We are committed to working with the Mayor’s Fund for London Kitchen Social programme and being part of the solution in resolving food insecurity. We know the summer holidays are a particularly challenging time for many families, so ensuring holiday programmes have the training and resources available to support in the delivery of high-quality, nutritious food is vital.

“Our chefs work tirelessly to put health and wellbeing at the heart of all their dishes. By opening up our skills and knowledge to Kitchen Social, we hope to promote the importance of healthy and sustainable eating, to many more children across the capital."

Once attendees had been shown how to create each dish, the volunteers were able to practice their cooking skills, as they took to the kitchen to make the recipes themselves. Volunteers were then able to tuck in and enjoy their meals together, with the Chartwells team providing recipe cards for each of the dishes.

Chaneti Stevens from Global Generation, one of the community hubs supported by the Kitchen Social Programme added: “The day was really helpful. The dishes were delicious and Dan and Charlotte answered all of my questions in great detail. The beetroot burger was amazing and had a great flavour and texture with the feta and spices. Beetroot is not normally my thing, but it tasted great - I’ll definitely be trying it again.”

Looking forward, Chartwells plans to continue supporting the Fund’s food programme by running more in-person cooking workshops with volunteers from across the capital.