Isle of Wight community charity Aspire will be serving up meals cooked by learners at HTP Apprenticeship College this winter.
Based in the former church on Ryde’s Dover Street, Aspire is a community hub that provides help and support to encourage creativity and reduce isolation. Aspire will be dishing up more than 500 meals cooked by budding chefs at HTP’s kitchens at their Riverbank campus in Newport.
People in the community who struggle to cook for themselves will be able to enjoy a lasagne or a pasta bake, prepared by students who are taking HTP’s full time cookery course. The dishes were cooked in bulk in early December and will be served up by Aspire throughout the winter, distributed to those in need as well as being served at community lunches.
Steve Johnson, Community Connector at Aspire said:
“These meals will help people with disabilities, who are older and isolated, homeless or
without the facilities to cook for themselves. We’re very grateful to the HTP students for their support, which will make a real difference to people in the community.
"The 500 meals will also help our staff and volunteers, meaning they have fewer meals to cook and they can spend more time with people on a one-to-one basis. The meals will also open up relationships – by providing food it means people who might otherwise be isolated can get closer to us, and see more of what we can offer at Aspire.”
HTP’s learners prepared the hundreds of meals during a single session. The students enjoyed the buzz and energy of cooking in bulk, to a schedule, giving them a taste of how large commercial kitchens operate.
Rachael Potter, Training Consultant, Professional Cookery added:
“Cooking for Aspire and the people that they help has been a great challenge for our students as well as a moment to focus on supporting others, especially at Christmas. It’s also great experience of working together, cooking in large quantities, to order. It’s great for our learners to know that their efforts will be helping and feeding people in the wider community in the coming weeks.”
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