Cosgarne Community Cookery Group

Kirsten Goldsworthy from Cosgarne Hall in St Austell facilitates a small cookery group on a weekly basis. The group collectively choose their menu for the following week and cook either by a recipe supplied or their own recipe, the group then all sit down together and eat the meal. It is also a chance to talk about food hygiene, budgeting for meals, nutrition and health. The cookery group has been running since 24th June with adults from 18 years upwards. They cook a 3 course menu, a starter, main and dessert between them.

As Cosgarne is its own little community, there are 30 people living in Cosgarne and their other house homes 10 people it is not open to the public. The individuals have to pay a surcharge of £1.50 per head for the ingredients to make the project sustainable.

Kirsten says the best part of the project is the group working together as a team and enjoying the results of their cooking, although the client group are chaotic due to their drug and alcohol issues, it can be hard to maintain some continuity of the group and a lot of the clients find it hard to fund the weekly surcharge. However, knowing that the individuals taking part are eating a healthy balanced diet and are learning basic skills of cooking and eating is a great benefit to the group.

Kirsten added the cookery is going pretty well so far. We have had so far 6 sessions consistently. Some weeks there are more residents than others. All who take part enjoy the afternoon and so far we have not had too many disasters! They are looking to gain funding for a gardening project so that they can become self sufficient for the cookery group.

If you would like more details about this project please contact Kirsten Goldsworthy c/o Cosgarne Hall, 81 Truro Road, St Austell.