Global Plant Kitchens: Made In Hackney’s new worldwide plant-based food education initiative

A new worldwide initiative to help communities move towards plant-based food has been set up by Made In Hackney.

Made In Hackney, a UK vegan charity and community cookery school, has helped thousands of people across London and the rest of the UK adopt plant-friendly diets.

Through its programme of classes, the charity’s work has resulted in numerous health and wellbeing, environmental sustainability and community benefits.

Over its 10 year history, Made In Hackney has been able to reach many individuals as a result of working with a wide collection of organisations.

It was the first vegan food collective to work with a public health team, the first to be commissioned by a hospital diabetes team to deliver cookery classes to patients, and the first to work widely in schools and nurseries.

Made In Hackney is now taking its impact further, by offering a free online training course and toolkit, which it hopes will accelerate the growth of a global movement of plant-based community cookery schools, via its Global Plant Kitchens initiative.

Global Plant Kitchens

According to Made in Hackney, its new online platform is the first of its kind. Boasting information about fundraising, programme development and responding to cultural needs among other topics, the site has been developed with input from groups around the world.

In addition, 10 organisations including five national and five international, will receive a year of free mentoring, so they can set up their own plant-based cookery schools.

According to Global Plant Kitchens, it is important that the schools respond to the unique cultural needs of their surrounding communities, and are not carbon-copies of Made In Hackney.

The first five organisations receiving mentoring include Vedge in Macau, Ollas Comunes Veganas in Peru, LOVE Food CIC in Exeter, Cambridge Sustainable Food in Cambridge, and a fledgling project in Manchester that will start from scratch through the programme. 

‘Amazing impact’

In a statement sent to Vegan Food & Living, founder Sarah Bentley said: “We’ve seen the amazing impact our work has had in terms of shifting the dietary norms of individuals, communities and organisations to more plant-centred, planet-friendly eating. 

“However, setting up and sustaining the school over the last ten years has been a real challenge. 

“That’s why we want to share our learning so other groups can achieve a similar impact in much less time. 

“In terms of the climate crisis – we don’t have another 10 years for the transition to plant-centred eating to happen.”

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Featured photo © Made in Hackney