What We Do…
Cegin y Bobl runs transformational food education programmes developed and delivered by some of Wales’ best cooks, growers and food experts. Our work builds on the successful ‘Cook24’ programme run by Coleg Sir Gar in 2024.
We believe that food addresses so many of the difficult issues we face today: diet-related diseases, isolation and anxiety, and the crisis in farming, biodiversity and the cost of living.
Food Discovery
This in-depth 6-week course takes children on a journey, exploring food through practical cooking. Kids are given agency, responsibility and respect in the classroom, kitchen and during farm visits.
Children, teachers and parents have reported improved school attendance and behaviour, increased engagement during lessons, a willingness from children to try new foods, a sense of pride and achievement, and families cooking from scratch more often at home.
“I’ve learned a lot, and have tried cooking more at home. I even ate stuff I would not normally try!”
Food Leadership
Our food leadership programme gives teachers, school staff and community leaders a deeper understanding of food education and sustainable food. It teaches strategies to integrate food and cooking into the curriculum or community activities. Over 4-days of interactive practical and theoretical sessions, we empower teaching staff and community leaders to develop their own school or community food plan.
Course participants leave with the confidence, passion, skills and techniques to use food as a transformational learning and engagement tool within schools.
“I took what I’d learned through the course and with (the) head on board, we have managed to provide a cooking lesson once a month for the classes in our school.”
Home Cookery
We run home cookery courses for diverse groups - from food banks users to parents and community groups. These 6-week courses give everyone the confidence and motivation to cook healthy, affordable and delicious food from scratch. People have reported coming away with a completely different outlook on food. Each course covers; cooking from scratch using basic ingredients, meal planning and budgeting, and minimising food waste.
“My son is special needs; this experience has given him different insight to food and cooking.”
The Outdoor Cookery Workshop, led by Chef Polly Baldwin, founder of The Jolly Allotment, offers a unique cooking experience. The one day workshop, available to both primary and secondary schools as well as community organisations, provides participants with the opportunity to explore fire cooking and discover the benefits of reconnecting with nature.
Outdoor Cookery
“A fun and educational session that I really enjoyed, and the chefs were excellent.”
Community Cook-Along
Bespoke to every community organisation we work with, we run weekly community cook along sessions. Working together with our chefs, volunteers create a meal to share with their local community. These sessions aim to strengthen community bonds, offering a safe and welcoming space for everyone while providing a nutritious, warm meal to those who may not have regular access to one.
Bespoke Delivery
We work in partnership with health boards, community groups and businesses to deliver bespoke food workshops. We have delivered all sorts or courses from teaching young parents how to feed their baby through proper nutrition, how food has a direct link to mental health and cooking from scratch can improve wellbeing.
We can tailor our courses and approach to your needs. Please get in touch if you would like to work with us.
“It was absolutely brilliant, everyone really enjoyed it and got a lot out of learning new skills and discussing the process of teaching groups how to cook with your chefs. Will certainly benefit us going forward. ”
Further and Higher Education
One of our key aims as we establish Cegin y Bobl is to look to the future – through investing in education. Alongside teaching community leaders and school kids we need to raise the next generation of food leaders, policymakers and passionate chefs and farmers in Wales – so we are working with fantastic partners to deliver exciting, real education in food and farming.
Demand for holistic, high-level education in food systems, food leadership, food production and regenerative farming is high, with no current market leader in the UK HE or FE landscape. The need for graduates and trainees with an in-depth knowledge both of the food system and of real-world solutions to global problems is already acute and will only grow in coming years as climate and geopolitical shocks multiply.
Watch this space as we develop our initial offering…
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Help us raise funds to connect people with food.
THANK YOU!