Local Food Champ Recognised in BBC Global Food Award
Local mum and former primary school teacher, Lucy May, who runs community cookery school, The Organic Cookery School, was named as a finalist for the BBC Food Chain’s Global Champion Award in the prestigious BBC Food & Farming Awards. The Awards seek to recognise the contribution made by pioneers changing the way we deal with food for the better.
The Organic Cookery School is a not-for-profit organisation which teaches cookery and nutrition programmes to families, children and teenagers through hands-on, community-based programmes and online. Local courses have included local authority and Lottery-funded family learning courses such as Cooking with Dad, Cooking for Baby and Food Explorers, as well as projects commissioned by Age UK and the Stroke Association. They are also passionate about equipping teens with the skills to be independent in the kitchen, learning to minimise food waste and feed themselves healthily on a budget, and they currently work with over 200 schools running Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme approved Street Food and Student Survival Cookery courses.
Lucy says: “I feel so honoured to have been a finalist and to have the work our grass roots organisation does recognised. Food education is more important now than ever, especially for children and families, and often the most effective projects we've run have arisen out of partnerships with local producers, farms and farm shops. Since setting up in 2004, we have engaged over 50,000 parents, children and young people in community settings, schools, libraries and children’s centres across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex and neighbouring counties, and trained over 320 teaching staff and volunteers.”