Julie Cooks Up Success in the Community
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A popular community initiative run by Salford City Academy and aimed at helping socially isolated members of the community is to be piloted across Salford after earning recognition in an NHS competition.
A popular community initiative run by Salford City Academy and aimed at helping socially isolated members of the community is to be piloted across Salford after earning recognition in an NHS competition.
Called ‘Cooking for Health and More,' the scheme was first set up two years ago by Salford City Academy's Community Partnerships Co-ordinator Julie Larkinson, with the aim of helping older people from the Peel Green area of Salford to lead more meaningful and fulfilling lives.
‘Cooking for Health and More' is held weekly at Salford City Academy and sees those taking part involved in growing their own fruit and vegetables, cooking, eating and socialising. The existence of the group helps its members to increase their independence, wellbeing and confidence, as well as adding a different dimension to the academy's community provision.
As part of the NHS's social innovation competition, Julie presented her "pitch" to start up similar schemes across Salford (and eventually the rest of the UK) to a panel of judges, including members of the local community, a local GP and representatives from the NHS and Social Services.
Julie Larkinson explained:
"The panel scored the different schemes presented to them on sustainability, feasibility, innovation and suitability. We were absolutely delighted when ‘Cooking for Health and More' came out on top."
Julie has now invested the £1,000 prize money back into the scheme to help with its continuation, whilst also working with the NHS and Social Services to develop her idea for potential roll-out across other communities.
Julie added:
"Here at Salford City Academy, we see ‘Cooking for Health and More' as such an important project. We have now built an intergenerational relationship between the local community and the academy, whereby the older people feel more valued and our students have greater respect and a different perspective on these members of the community. The scheme is so successful that it has already been expanded to a separate session working with adults with learning difficulties and we hope expansion throughout Salford will enrich the lives of many more people."