People with learning disabilities invited to special ‘cook and bake’ event

Local people with learning disabilities and their families are invited to a special event on Thursday 27th February to explore how an innovative series of cook books could help them to cook.

The Cook and Eat cook books were created by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, with help from people with learning disabilities. There are four books in the series, which include recipes to make lunchtime and evening meals as well as baking.

People with learning disabilities and their families are invited to come along to Barnsley College on Thursday 27th February 2014 to try their hand at making a recipe from the books – which they can take home to share with their friends and family.

The event is free and anyone with a learning disability is invited to book their place at the special event. Book your place by contacting Kerry Delaney or Louise Toth, who work in the Trust’s learning disability services, on 01924 327518.

Kerry Delaney, occupational therapist at the Trust, who created the books said, “The idea for creating the cook books came from my work with people with learning disabilities. People wanted to cook healthy foods, but didn’t know how to, and were not able to follow recipes from existing cook books.

“For example, recipes in a traditional cook book often use abbreviations or include instructions that require the person to make a judgment call. The recipes may also require you to multi task rather than follow one step at a time. We identified these difficulties and worked with people to ensure that the recipes in the Cook and Eat books can be used by everyone.”

People who have made recipes from the Cook and Eat books said they are “easy peasy” and “easy, you can just get on with it”.

Find out more about the Cook and Eat book at www.cookandeatmeals.co.uk