Catering Projects
The Pritchard’s Road Day Centre – Tower Hamlets
I was employed by the Pritchard’s Road Day Centre, a drop-in centre for sufferers of mental health (mental health service users), from 2012 – 2020 where I created this valuable project to help sufferers of mental health learn about cookery, the operation of a small in-house restaurant and how the right nutrition can benefit mental health.
The six-month open-ended courses covered basic, but essential cookery preparation techniques; level 1 food hygiene and health & safety, as well as food service and various nutrition topics.
The learners cooked everything from scratch. Nothing pre–prepared or frozen was used and nothing was too complicated, which is all you need when you are providing healthy, freshly prepared food for the other mental health service users.
The training offered here was informal, but weekly formative quizzes were given to help reinforce learning of the food preparation and nutrition principles. The aim at Pritchard's road was to help learners experience group working, to further enhance their existing cooking skills, or to gain new ones, or to move on to other similar courses. It helped rehabilitate people from a state of mental health to wellness.
For the learners the project became a vital stepping stone into further education (i.e. NVQ studies in hotel & catering), other training and mainstream employment (i.e. work within the catering industry), as you will see from the testimonials below. The learners also finish the course with a greatly improved sense of confidence, achievement and in some cases genuine happiness.
