Cook, Chai, Chat – Engaging the Wider Community

Pendle Women’s Forum’s second blog describes how their Creative English Innovation Project has reached out to the wider community.  I really enjoyed visiting the staff, volunteers and learners for their “Big Afternoon Tea” (and not just because of the cakes!) it is great to see the difference this project is making in people’s lives.

And so the final leg of the project begins! The first two blocks of our baking classes have seemed too flown by in a blur, but it has been a very successful blur indeed.

The baking classes were well attended by the women and thoroughly enjoyed. By taking part in the classes many of the women were able to learn new skills, vocabulary and not to mention delicious recipes.

The majority of the women who attended the classes were of Pakistani Heritage, and were not used to cooking sweet dishes like cakes and biscuits and they found this change in taste very pleasing. Some of the women commented that they would definitely be trying the recipes at home, and that it was an excellent task to do with their children.

Our afternoon tea grew in popularity over the weeks, with new faces dropping in each week. One of the weeks saw a group of local primary school children come in as part of their maths lesson to practice buying and selling. They were treated by their teacher to fudge cake and hot chocolate, and by the very noisy tea room we could tell they enjoyed themselves. The teacher from the school gave us very positive feedback and expressed interest in bringing her class again.

We also held afternoon tea on a larger scale at Christ Church to get the wider community engaged. We had over 40 people attend this and it was lovely to see a mixture of the community coming together and enjoying tea and cakes!