Community Work & Fundraising

The School of Artisan Food is a registered charity whose aim is to teach artisan food skills to as wide a group of people as possible.

In February 2022 The School of Artisan Food became an active founder member of the Bassetlaw Food Insecurity Network, established the local Community Voluntary Service in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council.

We have partnered with local social enterprises to provide mutual support, producing videos, recipes, and spice packages for Bassetlaw Food Insecurity Network food hubs. We have developed courses in mindful baking for people with mental health issues and have run courses on food and nutrition for people living with a cancer diagnosis. 

We are presently delivering a series of cooking classes over 3 years to young unemployed people in cooperation with the YMCA, funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

Best Food Forward: Learning and Cooking for Change (Schools and Surgeries)

This 3-year capacity building project is allowing The School of Artisan Food, in co-operation with other initiatives, to have a local and eventually national impact on the way that school staff, students, clinicians and patients relate to food. The School is holding theoretical and practical courses for health professionals so that they are able to communicate about food with their patients in primary care settings. This is a project that inspires and teaches about good food, what it is, how to access it, and what it will mean for everyone’s future well-being. The project is underway and is being led by a registered dietitian, Lauren Rathbone.

We are working with:

1. Schools: to ensure that students know where food comes from and how it is grown, produced and prepared to ensure that they have all the information that they need to make healthy, balanced choices for their diet. Working with teachers, kitchen staff and students, it is also educating about the part played by food and the food system on the human and physical world, including climate change. SAF aims to help and support schools as they change their whole food culture.
2. Surgeries: to ensure that GPs, nurses, health visitors and other health providers are equipped to talk to patients, whose problems range from metabolic illness to eating disorders, about a sensible and evidence-based approach to eating well. SAF has devised inspiring and constructive courses which are helpful and enabling for health professionals.

Values and Interests

We are committed to the widest possible access to The School of Artisan Food. We do this by fundraising for bursaries for the Advanced Diploma in Artisan Bakery and some shorter courses and by partnering with Nottingham Trent University and thus attracting HEFCE funding for students.  We strive to embed our commitment to equal opportunities into all our activities.

From its foundation, The School has aimed to foster an awareness of current issues in the food world. We are acutely aware of the climate emergency and the effect that this is having, and will have, on all of us. Our interest in the health of ecosystems leads us to think more about biodiversity, our interest in human health leads us to investigate the central part played by food in our cultural, physical, emotional and economic life.

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted issues around inequality and food. We are working on how to address the multiple barriers to eating well and we are teaching people about good, enjoyable, affordable food.