Chicken tonight? Fancy giving a portion of your dinner to a neighbour? Friendly foodies in the Reigate and Banstead community have discovered a new spin on the meals-on-wheels concept, offering to dish up a home-cooked meal to elderly residents in their area – and its proving to be a delicious recipe for success.
The Casserole Club – set up in November last year by FutureGov, which uses web technology to help local governments improve public services – allows budding Surrey cooks to do an online search for people in the area who, for whatever reason, cannot cook for themselves, and deliver a portion of their own home-cooked dish to their doorstep. And it’s proved so popular, the scheme will go Surrey-wide later this year.
But the Club has revealed itself to be about much more than just good food. “It’s about building a sense of community again, the way it used to be,” says Casserole’s community and engagement manager Rachel Karasik. “It’s a throw back to the days when people would bring a casserole around for someone who was sick, or who’d just had a baby. All of our diners are more than 80-years-old and all of our cooks are people who want to get to know their neighbours again – that feeling they had when they were growing up, when you knew everyone.”
Cooking couples
Securing funding from The Design Council in autumn last year, and launching in May, the scheme is still at the early stages, with some 100 members in Surrey signed up, but FutureGov is already looking to expand the idea across other areas of the UK.
“We’ve had a slow but steady increase in members since we launched and it’s very much spread by word of mouth,” says Rachel.
Part of the appeal lies in Casserole’s simplicity. ‘Cooks’ do a postcode search for ‘diners’ in their area and they are then ‘matched’ with someone close-by – within a maximum one-mile radius. Cooks can then choose to make meals on an ad-hoc basis, or ‘Pair Up’ and cook for one person regularly
“They can sign up to cook every other Tuesday, say, or twice a week if they want to and this has proved to be the most popular option. We thought people would like the freedom to choose when to cook, but most people have opted for the Pair Up because they want to form a regular relationship with their diner,” says Rachel.
Food and friendship
Initially set up as a voluntary scheme, the founders soon discovered that diners preferred to pay for their meal. “Currently people pay £2, which goes towards ingredients and we’re also setting up a monthly direct debit payment from diners to cooks,” says Rachel. “We found diners were not comfortable getting free meals and didn’t want to be seen as a charity case so now the Pair Ups can agree a price between themselves.”
Some real foodie friendships have been forged. Maggie* and Pam, for example, have been paired up for six weeks, with Maggie – a former nurse for more than 30 years – cooking for Pam who is partially sighted. Similarly, 30-year-old Katie has been cooking for Betty, in her 80s, twice a week since January.
"I really like the idea of bringing people together around food,” says Katie. “Shared dining experiences have been the fabric of communities since forever, and if we want to rebuild communities, food seems like a good place to start."
Rachel agrees. “A lot of elderly people rely on frozen meals so they love the fact that someone nearby cares enough to cook for them.”
Food for thought
Casserole has not been without its challenges however. “The hardest thing has been finding someone to cook for, as these tend to be people ‘at risk’ or those who simply don’t have access to computers,” says Rachel. “We’ve done a lot of leg-work to link people together – working with Age Concern and visiting day centres, speaking at events to try and entice members. In fact, most of the diners we have registered we’ve met personally and support through phone and text.”
For the elderly, security can be an issue – particularly with people coming to your home to drop off meals – but Rachel is keen to allay any fears. “We are hands on in matching people up, we chat to both people involved and there is a series of checks that we go through to make sure people are suitable. We also check up on the recipient after a meal and make sure they’re happy.”
That said, the Casserole creators deliberately don’t do CRB checks. “The whole basis of the scheme is tackling social isolation through shared food and it’s all about building that community trust,” she says.
Field to fork
So far diners seem to be universally happy with their postbox meals and bad cooks have yet to surface – but in the future Casserole is planning a ‘Plates’ section on its website where you can review Cooks’ food and view a list of the meals they have prepared.
“We’d like to do a scheme whereby we reward those who are cooking, say after 50 dishes, with a meal for two at a local restaurant,” says Rachel.
The Club is also keen to get local food producers involved, broadening that connection between residents and the local suppliers and shops in their communities.
“Chalk Hill Bakery already helped us with a pop-up lunch, delivering two-dozen fresh baked loaves to the event for free!” says Rachel. “And we’re also in talks with growing clubs to see if they could offer their surplus harvests to Casserole Cooks. Overall, it’s about spreading the word,” continues Rachel. “It’s about neighbours connecting with each other again; meeting with someone around the corner, who’s lived there for 60 years and sharing fantastic stories over good, home-cooked food.”
To find out more about Casserole Club log on to www.casseroleclub.com. If you are a producer and are interested in getting involved, email Rachel Karasik on rachel@wearefuturegov.com or call 0203 286 8911.
*Surnames have been hidden for the sake of anonymity
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