Bags of Taste are a charity committed to helping people gain control over their food choices, health, and budgets. It is a community-based cooking initiative that operates throughout the UK. It is open to individuals who are struggling with their health and/or food bills. These may include:
- Young people
- Families and single parents
- Pensioners and socially isolated individuals
- People over-reliant on ready meals or fast food
- Those managing medical conditions or mental health challenges
What the programme does
The initiative aims to help people:
- Cook healthy, tasty meals on a tight budget.
- Learn practical cooking skills at home.
- Reduce food costs and improve confidence in meal planning.
- Improve cooking confidence
- Reduce reliance on expensive convenience foods
- Making nutritious meals for under approximately £1 per portion.
How it works
Participants join a mentored home cooking course where they:
- Cook from home at their own pace.
- Receive support via WhatsApp or telephone.
- Follow step-by-step guidance, videos, and tips.
- Connect with other participants via WhatsApp
To help people get started, Bags of Taste provides the following (all delivered free of charge to your home):
- Recipe guides for three meals
- Ingredients for these three meals
- Basic cooking equipment where needed
- A guide on dicing onions correctly 😊
- A guide on how to cook rice
- A local shopping guide
- Tips for cooking on a budget
- Help with encouraging “picky eaters”
Who can join?
You are eligible for the course if you answer “yes” to several of the following questions:
- Do you receive any benefits?
- Are you unemployed?
- Have you been unemployed for more than a year?
- Do you live with children?
- Are you a single parent?
- Do you suffer with any type of mental health challenges?
- Do you suffer with any long-term illnesses/ disabilities?
- Do you live in temporary/insecure housing?
- Are you a diabetic?
- Have you any food allergies?
My own experience
I visited the https://bagsoftaste.org/students/ and completed the “Join a course” form, the very next day someone called me back. She was lovely, she put me at ease whilst she asked me the various eligibility questions. She then explained how the two-week course would work.
A few days later I joined the WhatsApp group with 4 other students and our designated mentor, Harriet, (all mentors are very experienced and have a background in nutrition or dietetics). The following Wednesday, my bag of goodies arrived 😊 (the ingredients they send out will reflect any food allergies you have).
In addition to the easy-to-follow instructions for each recipe Harriet posted YouTube videos of the cooking process. After creating each of the tasty meals we posted pictures on the WhatsApp group and commented on the process & taste.
Once I had completed all three meals, Harriet called me for a reflection chat, i.e. what I thought of the whole course, my likes & dislikes, would it inspire to change my cooking habits etc.
I also received a completion certificate, some more recipe cards (including popular recipes for kids), and an invite to join the Bag of Taste Facebook group, which has a lot more recipes and helpguides.
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, especially having a mentor on the end of a phone/WhatsApp to help/encourage me.
My main takeaways from this course are:
- I finally know how to cut an onion properly!
- I now know that frozen vegetables are just as healthy for you as fresh (with less waste)
- I can now appreciate the benefits of bulk cooking
- I can now appreciate that home cooked meals can be as tasty (and a lot cheaper & healthier) then their takeaway counterpart
A big thank you to Harriet for all her help and encouragement 😊
Please note courses run from January through to November, happy cooking 😊
