World cookery project

The World Cookery Project with Chloe

I designed the World Cookery Project because of my love of travel and food and my passion for education and different approaches to learning. I feel very strongly that democratic education is a very effective method of schooling and having been through that system myself, leaving school 10 years ago, I realised it was the environment to which I would like to return to teach this project.

The Project
We work our way around the world spending four weeks exploring each continent. As well as looking at an overview of each continent, we study one country each week in more detail. The students and I are responsible for cooking lunch for the rest of the school in the theme of the chosen country.

The students gain the skills required to cook healthy food from all over the world, also learning to effectively manage time and budget whilst working together. As well as practical skills being developed, I prepare worksheets each week about the country we are studying which cover culture, religion, food and drink, politics, wildlife, the environment, history and current affairs. We have discussions about the country we are studying and everyone taking part has the chance to share their experiences and knowledge.

Charity
We have also been putting the skills we are all developing to good use by raising money for charity.

We arranged a café evening in December where we prepared food from around the world for parents and members of the public to raise money for The Shanti Community Animation Movement, a small Sri Lankan charity that helps people living in the slums and on tsunami camps in Colombo.

Following the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on 12th January we organised a cheap school lunch day where we prepared a simple lunch of leftovers and donated the lunch budget to the appeal as well as holding a cake and bring and buy sale.

We try to have a cheap school lunch day at least once a term to raise money for charity and raise awareness throughout the school about those less fortunate than ourselves.

We are in the process of creating a World Food Cookery Book which will contain not only the exciting recipes we have been adapting, but also beautiful illustrations by the students and interesting facts we have learnt about the countries. Once the book is finished it will go on sale and all proceeds will go to charity.

Ethics and Environment
All food prepared in the school kitchen is vegetarian and we use organic and local produce where possible. A group of students are interested in the possibility of growing some of our own produce on the school grounds so we are investigating sources of funding for this project. Let us know if you have any ideas!