
Who's going to offer a new way to overcome food poverty, prevent it in the first place and link up local food projects with shared food resources so you can 'do' food projects with integrity?
Who's going to empower you, show you exactly how, push and prod you into awakening and inspire you to set up a microbusiness or social enterprise around food?
Who's going to inspire you to get on and set up that social space that you know your community needs?
Who's going to show how tenders, policy and curriculum can all be remodelled around a new food model that is resourceful, affordable, sociable and easy to do?
Who's going to get on a large cardboard box and start shouting about a new way of doing food that means you get a decent meal, you save the planet and reinvigorate communities with an alternative to food banks?
Yup, it's me. Or rather my new venture; Super Kitchen!
Super Kitchen is a social eating consultancy that allows people and groups to pop up resourceful, affordable, sociable and do-able kitchens that are simply super. Follow our model, show our pledge and use our logo to show customers what you stand for, have a reason to do what you do, a way to attract funds and investment and be part of a social eating movement that is going to change our food landscape for the better.
Put simply Super Kitchen is a fresh, kick-ass dish on the national menu that challenges our high waste, high cost, high faff way of doing food.
Our current model says we need loads of choice. But when you go out to eat or buy a sandwich at lunch how many meals do you actually buy? You only eat one dinner don't you? How do you feel knowing that the huge choice you see means your food is unlikely to be fresh, God knows where it comes from, it could have been in a fridge for weeks and it's expensive because you are paying for all the choices you don't choose to be thrown away. And that because of this choice model, lots of people in our country can't afford to eat.... Super Kitchen offers an alternative to food banks by showing groups how to do food incredibly affordably and by giving you some great reasons that funders can get behind... And we are wrecking our environment with so much amazing food being thrown away and wasted and we all want to do something to stop this; it's time for something new....
It's cape set on fire and it doesn't wear its underpants on the outside but from the ashes came a new spesh mega pan..... Behold! It's Super Kitchen!
The current model says you need to have all manner of gadgets, a shit-hot chef, tons of choice, be open all hours, have expensive equipment, an amazing venue with tons of footfall and have a huge infrastructure investment or a big chunk of cash to get a food business going? Not if you are a Super Kitchen! Our model shows you how to set up something easy, affordable, resourceful, delicious and innovative- how to get around current obstacles and just get going and feed your community and beyond delicious, homemade food. There is so much mystification and snobbery around food and Super Kitchen boots this all up the bwatty bum....
Wouldn't it be better to have less choice but focus instead on better quality, freshly made food with a menu that changes every few days? Because waste is reduced then we can focus on better quality ingredients and make it more affordable... Wouldn't it be better to have lots of little social eating joints in communities where you could sit and share a meal or take a freshly made ready meal home, or have a social based on food every month, or be able to teach kids how to cook from a shared food pot that your local community stores and shares? Wouldn't you want your selling point to be that you have hardly any waste, your food is freshly cooked, it's affordable and you are able to source it locally and seasonally? Wouldn't you love to sit and have a fabulous lunch that you know has been homemade that day? And save the environment in the process?
Can I get a 'Hell Yes'?
Using a one-pot style of cooking, providing a dynamic, fresh menu that changes daily, making the most of what you've got and sharing food resources, Super Kitchen will allow you to set up a microbusiness easily and affordably. It will maximise access to affordable food and allow existing food businesses to streamline menus in favour of better quality, homemade food. Super Kitchen's are easy to run and manage, they are simple to set up, they are a low-cost way of doing food that allows you to make a living whilst staying away from the current food skanking culture...
If you live in a community where there are cook and eat programmes, cooking lessons, youth club or elder dinners or any enterprises that involve a food element then you could all become Super Kitchens. Join the supermarket surplus scheme and get an amazing delivery of fresh food every fortnight. You won't believe how affordable and resourceful you can be by getting this shared food asset and running all your projects from it. Just have a rota and take a turn as there is more than enough food to go around... Instead of having fixed recipes in your cook and eat's or elder dinners just use what you get in your delivery and empower people how to cook with what they have and offer a freshly cooked dinner for your customers at a fraction of conventional prices from shop or wholesale-bought ingredients. Imagine a community with a fresh and frozen ready-meals service, a community cafe, kids cookery lessons, and an elders luncheon club that all used and shared the same food resource that came from being a member of supermarket surplus charity? Imma show you how!
If you run an organisation that isn't a food business but has a food factor such as a council or educational establishment, you can use the Super Kitchen model to shape your tenders. Get a company who follows our model and be sure of a fresh, dynamic menu that offers homemade food that is environmentally conscientious and affordable. Corporate social responsibility departments- get in on this movement! If you run a Super Kitchen business then you don't have to fry eggs all day and instead you can cook a delicious meal and show off your food passion rather than heating up crap. You can make better money using our model and you can link up with local suppliers to get a better deal. Your customers will enjoy eating food that you have made for them and you can use it as your selling point! Say Whut!?
Super Kitchen is not about no choice, it's about not having a fixed, where the heck does this come from, processed, sitting in the fridge for weeks, wasteful menu. Super Kitchen empowers you and your business or organisation to say that a daily, fresh special or two that uses surplus or local and seasonal food, using what is around and making the most of it, is better than the current model. You don't store, stock or rotate tons of food, you don't throw food away, you can run a Super Kitchen with ease and strengthen communities by popping up little social eating joints that give people the hang-out spaces we so desperately need...
So, Super Kitchen will take the form of consultancy, a toolkit that shows you exactly how-to and why-to follow our model, and a campaign to get people filling up their own mega pans and start dishing out a new way of doing food- a super way of doing food by becoming Super Kitchens... Let me know your thoughts!