Hft is providing people at its Kingston-on-Thames service with the opportunity to get a taste of different European cultures and cuisines.
Hft has been awarded £11,000 European funding from the Grundtig Life Long Learning Programme towards a European project, “Inventing Dishes - European Art” (IDEA) which offers people with learning disabilities the opportunity to share their cultural heritage with other European partners. IDEA involves 4 countries: Spain, Germany, Cyprus and the UK.
Three people from Hft’s Kingston service experienced a taste of traditional Greek culture and cuisine, when they visited Cyprus from 17th to 20th April this year.
John Diamond, Paul Brewster and Colin Cushing, who are all members of the cookery club at Hft’s Springfield Place centre in New Malden, Kingston, were the first of the club to travel abroad to Cyprus with Hft staff support as part of the project.
The group stayed in a small village in the Troodos Mountains during the Easter celebrations where they took part in a workshop based on preparing traditional Greek food for the Easter party which was run by local women.
During their trip John, Paul and Colin had a fantastic time taking part in traditional Cyprus dancing; sharing a meal in a family home, making traditional bread, attending Midnight Mass and taking part in a local village’s sports day. They were presented with a booklet with recipes for easy to follow traditional Cypriot dishes to try at home.
Everyone agreed that the best part of the trip was making new friends with people from a different country and culture.
“Taking part in this project has meant a real buzz for everyone at Hft Kingston”, said service manager Tracy Lazell, “Everyone has been thinking about heritage and culture, and our national dishes. To help us decide what dishes to cook in our own UK workshop this May we carried out a survey of over 100 people and not surprisingly fish and chips came out as number 1!”
All of the eight members of the Kingston cookery club will get the opportunity to travel to Spain, Germany or Cyprus during the project to find out about their hosts’ national cultures and traditions, with a particular emphasis on food.
Trips to Spain and Germany are planned later in the year and Hft is fundraising for the grand finale of the project in May 2010 which it will host in Kingston.
The UK group are hoping to take their guests on a cruise up the River Thames followed by a bus tour around the sites of London. There will also be numerous cooking workshops where people will have the chance to prepare fish and chips, curry, Cornish pasties and pancakes. In true British style the group plan to have a “Curry and Quiz Night” on the first night.The finale will be a masquerade ball where delegates will wear masks which they will have prepared during their stay.
18 May 2009
