An article written by Fazela Khatun
At the end of the summer holidays Brixton People's Kitchen hosted two weeks of Food and Fun for local children within our community on the The Food Bus.
Our Summer Takeover was to help provide free healthy lunches for kids and their guardians, as well as workshops that encourage healthy eating, physical activity, creativity and play!
The Food Bus was the hub for our project. We used the space to prepare healthy lunches, run workshops for our guests and cooked healthy meals on site. Children were encouraged to be involved in preparing healthy meals in addition to having fun, learning new skills and engaging with their local community.
We were able to provide 135 delicious free lunches to kids this summer, which were full of vegetables and other healthy snacks. The lunches were made by our very own top tier chefs Food Bus Manager Anna, and BPK manager Georgia. They made a range of healthy and hearty dishes, from freshly made vegetable pastas to flavourful fajitas alongside fruit and other nutritious snacks. Children got involved too, and even enjoyed making their own sushi and fruit kebabs on the bus!
Every day was filled with fun and educational activities to keep kids entertained and engaged. In addition to cooking workshops, activities ranged from pot painting to planting, fort building to football, and storytelling to salsa. And this was just on the bus! Further afield, we took day trips to Battersea Park and Burgess Park. The kids enjoyed every workshop, and developed new skills, made new friends, and enjoyed tasty food!
In our first week we had Cinzia Ciaramicoli who taught a drama workshop, and storytelling with puppets. The kids gathered together to play and create stories about their beautiful, handmade butterflies.
In our second week, the amazing Arianna Natalie taught the kids a fun salsa workshop, giving the children an opportunity to learn a new genre of dance and music. This was followed by Anna from Cherry Garden School, who provided a makaton workshop, teaching children the basics of sign language. Everyday provided a new opportunity for the children to gain new skills and friends alike, in addition to giving their parents a well deserved break!
One parent said “The summer takeover was absolutely lovely, the kids had an amazing time and even learned sign language. Hope to see BPK again, thank you.”
Another parent said “Me and my two boys loved all the time spent with the girls from the Food Bus and BPK. They were amazing, preparing all those creative activities and cooking delicious food. Going on the bus to the parks on Fridays was the highlight of the whole summer. You made our summer fun and super exciting.”
As we came to the end of our Summer Takeover we said our goodbyes to all the families and packed up the Food Bus. BPK also said goodbye to our longtime manager Georgia, as she sets off on her new adventures. We had an amazing group of volunteers who helped organise the clubs, and made this summer an incredible experience for all involved.
Although BPK has no permanent place to call home yet, we are still always happy to provide spaces to support our local community in any way we can. It was wonderful to continue to support the local community this summer, whilst having some fun in the sun! We had a great summer, and we can’t wait to see you all again soon.