Cooking and Company
Campaigns and Interventions:
Why Cooking and Company?
More men than women over 65 are unpaid carers, yet they are far less likely to seek support. In terms of nutrition, carers report ‘less time to cook’ or ‘less interest in food’ as barriers to cooking healthy meals at home. Caring can be very lonely, with older men finding it difficult to talk, and caring often results in the loss of support networks.
After consulting with a group of older male carers, it was uncovered that their caring role had impacted on their eating habits, with skills in the kitchen and understanding of healthy eating were poor. There was huge interest in attending courses that involved practical cooking sessions, information and tips on healthy eating and food skills, as well as an opportunity to socialise with like-minded individuals.
Outcomes
In Summer 2019, Food Active delivered four six-week cooking courses, engaging with over thirty older male carers.
Once the cooking sessions had come to a close, we trained up five members of staff at Liverpool Carers Centre (within Local Solutions) who will continue to deliver the programme post-funding, and incorporate this as part of their existing programme of activities and classes for carers.
We have also developed an online toolkit which contains information, advice and practical support for older male carers.
A really valuable course that has informed and encouraged me to expand my cooking and care for my wife.
How effective is Cooking and Company?
Throughout the programme, data was collected to measure changes in dietary behaviours, knowledge and mental health at baseline and again after the six week course had been completed. We also evaluated the quality of the train-the-trainer programme. Preliminary data indicates the programme has been highly successful in increasing knowledge and skills in the kitchen, as well as making good friends. All sets of data are currently being evaluated as part of a wider evaluation of the whole project, and will be shared on this page as soon as it is ready.
I have gained good friends and learned how to cook.
More Information
To find out more about the resources available as part of this project, or to get in touch with one of the team to find out more about Cooking and Company, please follow the relevant button below:
ABOUT US
Find out more about the Food Active team and the Food Active Network
What we Do
Find out more about our programme of work and our priorities
Policy Change
Explore our work on influencing policy both locally and nationally
Campaigns
Discover our range of campaigns to promote behaviour change
Research
Find out more about our research to understand and explore the food environment
Events
Get up to speed with our past conferences and events programme