Foodie Book Club CIC is a book club with a difference.
We’re a not-for profit trying to do some good in a crazy world.
* Our aims are to support inclusion and work to prevent isolation. Foodie Book Club supports the emotional well-being of as many people as we can reach.
* We promote the food and drink industry and small businesses through books, food, cooking and fun.
Everyone Can Cook Project
With Food Poverty on the rise and cooking skills in the decline, Foodie Book Club spent time talking and visiting food banks to find out how we can help people who access them and are in need of support.
The conclusion:
* “Many people who access food banks choose familiar ingredients because …they don’t have the basic cooking skills to be able to use them in any interesting ways”
These outcomes spearheaded the Everyone Can Cook project.
Foodie Book Club developed a series of recipes using food bank and pantry ingredients.
Each dish has an easy to follow and undemanding to read recipe sheet with step-by-step photographs making it clear and easily accessible to anyone.
Each recipe sheet plus a box of ingredients is delivered, free of charge, to households who are in isolation because of food deprivation and identified as in need of cooking skills.
Each Foodie Book Club box costs £13 to develop, put together and deliver.
With just £500 Foodie Book Club CIC can help over 38 households.
Obviously, the more funds we can get from outside sources, the more people we can help with cooking skills and food poverty.
If you’d like to help contribute to the Everyone Can Cook project, email leeandthesweetlife@gmail.com
Trying to do all these things isn’t easy or cheap, which is why we’re always looking for grants to help fund what we do, and volunteer group leaders to help us start new Foodie Book Clubs.
The ideal volunteers would be:
🔸Empathic
🔸Organised
🔸Non-judgmental
🔸Likes food & books
🔸Good listener
🔸Friendly
If this is you, keep reading to find out how to become a volunteer and then let’s chat!
With every new Foodie Book Club more people become part of the FBC family which means we can support more people too.
As a volunteer Foodie Book Club leader, it’s really easy to start a Foodie Book Club where you are!
Find people to join your Foodie Book Club. Once you have your group, click here to register the name of your group and the names of you and all your members. We’ll send you a FREE gift of one of our fabulous bookmarks for all of your Foodie Book Club members, just to say hello.
Get each member of your group to sign up to our FREE weekly newsletter so they can receive discounts, competitions and prizes that are offered by our #foodiebookclubhour sponsors.
You don’t have to be in a Foodie Book Club to sign up to our FREE weekly newsletter and receive all of benefits.
3. Check in every month to our Foodie Book Club page here on our website and find the title of the next month’s book.
4. Each new book will have an ingredient in the title. You’ll also find a review of the book along with a recipe using the ingredient in the book title and an egg rating.
5. In the last week of each month, arrange for your group to meet up, chat about the book and have some fun.
6. Each member of the group brings along a potluck dish to share using the ingredient from the book title.
Half of the group bring a sweet dish and half a savoury dish, change over each month.
No need to be a chef, it’s about fun, support and sharing.
Talk to us!
Share thoughts about the book, share recipes, share fun and share anything that’s on your mind.
It’s a crazy time and lots of us have worries, stresses and anxieties. Share them with your group members, or reach out in other ways.
1. Connect on our Twitter account, @book_foodie at any time.
We have a Twitter hour , #foodiebookclubhour every Wednesday 6-7pm (GMT).
An hour of fun & chat about food and books with a different sponsor each week offering discounts, prizes and giveaways.
2. Connect with other Foodie Book Club groups on the Foodie Book Club Facebook page (it’s Lee & The Sweet Life).
3. Connect on Instagram too!
Volunteer Group Leaders Receive:
Notes to help get your Foodie Book Club off the ground.
Ideas to keep the meetings moving along.
Zoom training session to cover basic empathic listening skills.
Regular contact with Lee
More to come
How Does Lee Choose a Book for the Foodie Book Club?
1. The fiction book must have a food or an ingredient in the title. (Adult or children’s title).
2. I should be able to make something based on that food or ingredient.
You don’t have to be a great cook to make something to share, its all about support and fun.
3. For purposes of complete transparency, I’ll just say that it may have a loose, sometimes very loose connection :)
4. I’m rating the books using eggs, 1 being blah and 5 being I would read it again, well maybe. Please don’t take my reviews too seriously, I’m not a book reviewer, so take it with a pinch of salt, or sugar or even a square or two of chocolate :)
Look out for the Tip Box at the end of every recipe. Find the latest reviews and recipes on the review and recipe page!
