May 03, 2017
|By aissagallie
|
Regular followers to our Foundation blog will know as an organisation how much we love our food! The health and social benefits of cooking and sharing food are well documented. For our teams and customers at Foundation, exploring how food can open conversations is a huge part of our work. Across the organisation teams are building innovative engagements through food, supporting customers to grow their practical skills, independent living skills and engage in conversations that address their own issues as well as giving opportunity for them to engage in a wider world view.
The World on a Plate!
Over the past few weeks as Poplar Villa in Scarborough, staff and customers have taken a world tour through food. Visiting different countries and their cultures through conversation and cooking. Raising awareness of cultural activity and expression is a vital part of our social inclusion work at Foundation. In today’s fast changing world where ‘difference’ is a hot topic, it is vital that young people are given opportunities to engage in debate and learn something new.
Culinary travels have taken our customers to Mexico, China, Poland, Italy, India, Japan and Spain.
Breakfast – the most important meal of the day.
Our Scarborough teams have also been giving customers a chance to build breakfast into their everyday routine. It is often quoted as the most important meal of the day and there is a reason for that. Being up and ready to face the day is something many of us take for granted, for some of our customers it is a routine that they are introducing into their lives for the first time and gaining many benefits from that. The regular attendance at ‘brunch’ sessions has also included some FIT-KIT (Foundation Inclusion Tools) activities as customers have discussed how drug and alcohol use can impact on their tenancy.
Bake a cake
Some of the discussions tackled over food can be quite challenging. Our teams work hard to build the trust with their customers that enables these conversations to take place. Cake puts a smile of everyone’s face and the smell of a cake baking is one that is warm and inviting. It may well be that our staff bake a cake and a customer may only engage when it’s time to take a slice. It is however, these small engagements and the activities of ‘home’ taking place in the environment that build the foundations of trust from which progress can be made.
