3 minute read
Community nourishment and health
Food story
COMMUNITY NOURISHMENT AND HEALTH
WORDS ARI CANTWELL CORN
“Coexist Community Kitchen is a non-profit cookery school in
Bristol, UK. Our big, over-arching vision is that we want to live in a world where everyone is nourished and healthy. By ‘nourished’, we mean so many things - our bellies, our souls, our hearts, our minds and our communities, and the same goes for ‘healthy’- our individual health, our emotional health, our societal health... and these are not exhaustive lists.
From our beautiful kitchen in the South West; full of plants, murals and food- our core work is running cookery classes with young people and adults that are accessing support services. This could be mental health support, drug & alcohol recovery, working with young people out of education, cooking with people who are part of the asylum system and many more community groups.
We see food as a vehicle to work with people who are experiencing isolation, social marginalisation or are in need of greater connection and joy in their life. Our cookery classes are very relaxed and informal and are a space for people to come together and have a bit of respite from the world around them, or just come in and share their expertise in cooking and food. We definitely do learn culinary skills, but the focus is so much about coming together over food. There is no wonder why there is a cliché about the kitchen being the heart of the home. JOYFUL FIGHT FOR RIGHTS
Our society works for many people at the higher echelons; however, we see that this does not necessarily trickle down to rest of us. It is obvious to us that there are devastating outcomes due to our segregated society- on our physical and emotional health. Poverty & isolation destroys communities, families and individuals and leaves us with less resilience and dignity to joyfully fight for our rights to feel connection, feel respect and nourish ourselves and others. Our passion is that everyone should be able to have spaces in which they can share food together, learn and teach skills and create strong connections with others. Eating. Laughing, learning and sharing!
We see food as the most simple and easy way to support each other in building a stronger, healthier and more joyful society. We have been doing this for over 11 years and have worked with 1000s of people across Bristol and the South West. This has been through small cookery classes where people learn and share skills around food but most importantly meet each other, build connections, share food and feel at home. We have built strong partners with many organisations in Bristol that want to do the same- drug and alcohol services, mental health organisations, refugee and asylum seeker groups.
REPLICATION RURALLY
Over the years we have been doing this, we have seen people, including ourselves, experience great change, build friendships and feel part of our home. We would love to see this kind of work replicated in other communities; urban and rural and are very happy to share and collaborate. We can really see this working in a more rural setting, especially with the access to growing spaces, projects and farms and how this can only encourage us all to respect, know and understand our food systems and how to eat better for ourselves and the land.
We understand that the small act of chopping an onion, or chatting to someone over the rice pot, will not necessarily change the world in of itself- but what we do feel is it brings moments and times of joy, connection, and a sense of belonging. These are all things that help us all feel more resourced, more resilient and more able to make or demand the changes we need to see for ourselves, our communities and our planet.” www.coexistcommunitykitchen.org
