39 Youth Club runs weekly clubs for young people in Bognor Regis. Within their safe space, they organise various art, music and sport activities. A recent grant from the Foundation helped fund their ‘Cooking with Young People’ project, which offered weekly cooking sessions and produced free, healthy meals for 40 young people.
Over the last couple of years, the Cost of Living crisis has greatly impacted the young people attending the Club. As many families were less able to afford to buy food, often attendees were arriving hungry at the sessions. The Club started to offer hot meals, but their aim was also to increase their support by providing more varied food and giving young people the skills to help themselves.
In addition to help reduce the impact of food poverty for these families, the Club’s staff have been teaching their young people about nutrition and how to cook healthy meals on a budget. This has given them the skills to support themselves and their younger siblings at home. It has also helped them feel more valued and build up their self-confidence.
We have heard from a member of staff at 39 Youth Club:
“A 14-year-old attending our sessions suffered personal trauma leading to school changes and bad life choices. He spoke to our Lead Youth Worker and it was discovered that he had a love of cooking and wanted to learn new skills, so he became part of our cooking programme.
When he first started, he preferred staff to take charge and just tell him what to do, but after months of working together he now feels more confident. He uses his spare time to search new recipes and cost them out, and then comes to the Club with his own ideas. He regularly cooks for the other Club’s members and prepares leftovers to take home to their families.
We have encouraged him to speak with other members and share his ideas. He is now capable of organising a group of four other members to prepare, cook and serve a meal for 20 young people, he cooks at home for family members and visitors, and often takes meals to his grandparents. His school’s teachers have told us that he is now attending cookery classes at school. We continue to work with him and help him grow.”
To find out more about 39 Youth Club, visit their website.
Read more about the groups we support.
“Thanks to the funding, we were able to expand our offer from two to four sessions per week. We also added in extra sports activities, with fitness sessions followed by talk about nutrition and diet. We have been able to do more to address our young people's anxiety and needs.”
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