Freeling Agriculture, Recreation and Multi-use Centre, known as the FARM, is a bustling community hub for all in the town of Freeling and surrounding regions.

Throughout November and December, the team at the FARM have partnered with Cookery Thyme to bring back their Inclusive Cooking Classes.

The need to bring back the Inclusive Cooking Classes was discovered at the FARMS bi-annual Community Network Forum. A forum that aims to connect communities to leisure through collaboration and common interests to improve access and inclusion to the FARM's wonderful community leisure assets. Community Network Forums are essential in understanding the community’s needs, preferences and priorities to help guide Belgravia venues in understanding how they can better serve the community they operate in.

Centre Manager, Ross Sharer, said “through our Community Network Forum we realised that there was a need for some independence skill training, we wanted people to feel comfortable in moving out of home and so we designed the cooking classes to cook home-style meals that can be prepared and made with basic ingredients.”

The Inclusive Cooking Classes are designed for people looking to build their independence. Money raised through the Belgravia Foundation goes directly back into the Inclusive Cooking Class program, reducing the individual cost of ingredients to enable better access for all.

Each session begins at the family operated Freeling Foodland where participants are guided with the ingredients required for the cooking sessions. Once all the ingredients are sorted, it is straight back to the FARM for all the cooking to begin! “The cooking class has allowed the participants to gain confidence in the kitchen, one of the students often took food home for his family” exclaimed Mr Sharer.

Belgravia Foundation would like to congratulate the team at the FARM for implementing a great community initiative that has recently been awarded the Belgravia Foundation Award at the recent Belgravia Leisure 2022 awards. The Belgravia Foundation is proud to be innovative partners of the FARM’s Inclusive Cooking Classes.

If you would like to donate to the FARM please do so by following the prompts here.