ON SALE NOW: Sheffield Young Carers and Syeda’s'29 Minute Meals' Recipe Book

(price £4.99 with additional donations welcome)

In August 2011, 15 young people from SYC were supported by Syeda to develop, make and taste some simple, healthy recipes to cook for themselves and their families, and to turn these into a recipe book and cookery show-style film to share what they had learnt.

Sheffield Young Carers is a charity which supports over 90 young people aged 8-21 across the city each year. Manager Liz Church is endlessly inspired by the young people, “These are children who face daily pressures such as helping a family member get washed and dressed, managing the household budget, doing the shopping, cooking and cleaning, or being a shoulder to lean on emotionally for a family member. These are responsibilities we don’t normally expect to grapple with during childhood – a time when most children learn how to play and have fun, make friends and learn skills essential for a fulfilling life later on. Young carers are often distanced from their peers by their caring role and a lack of free time in which to socialise and make friends, leaving them isolated, misunderstood and sometimes bullied.”

Due to these pressures we found that some of the young carers were under or over eating. Syeda’s Community development worker met with the young people and found that aside from body image and self esteem issues the one aspect that was causing the most stress and having a direct impact on their diets was COOKING and shopping for food. This resulted in the young people not eating much at all or relying on fast food, especially when feeling low they would use food to make themselves feel better. By teaching the young people all about healthy eating and how to cook basic meals, it was hoped that we could prevent eating disorders by easing stress and not making food a source for comfort or control.

With the kind support of Sheffield Hallam University, the group from Sheffield Young Carers spent four days in the university Catering & Hospitality department learning all about:
• Keeping safe in the kitchen
• What 'healthy eating' really means
• How to ‘buy right’ to make great meals on a small budget

They also made and tasted over 20 different quick and nutritious meals using recipes that Syeda’s Community Development Worker carefully created based on meals that the young carers said they already enjoy or wanted to learn how to cook.

With the support of law firm Irwin Mitchell, these recipes have now been made into a recipe book, 'Young Carers 29 Minute Meals', which includes budgeting ideas, healthy eating tips and all the delicious, tried-and-tested recipes.

To accompany the recipe book, the group also made a cookery-show style film, kindly produced by Pseudonym Films. It includes some of what the group learnt about how to keep safe in the kitchen, along with step-by-step demonstrations of how to make their three favourite recipes from the book.

Click the following link to see the video and more information on Healthy Eating.

http://www.syeda.org.uk/view/healthyeating

The recipes book is now available to buy, priced £4.99 (with additional donations welcome) To buy the book contact SYCP.

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