Hopwood Hall students cook up Christmas cheer for charity scheme

Rochdale charity scheme

Catering students from Hopwood Hall College recently joined the ‘Friday Night Dinners’ scheme to feed family’s facing financial difficulties.

Along with Hopwood Hall’s Riverside Restaurant, the scheme involves the Rochdale Pioneers Museum, The Co-operative, Strawberry Gardens Grocers and The Baum.

Headed by The Rochdale Pioneers Museum, students at The Riverside Restaurant cook the food donated by the Co-op and Strawberry Gardens Grocers, the meals are then delivered to and stored by the Baum before being taken to be served at The Rochdale Pioneers Museum.

With Rochdale regularly being named as one of the most deprived areas in the UK, the scheme could provide a valuable resource for many families in the borough. At one of the scheme’s open evenings, so many people attended that organisers ran out of food.

When asked how he felt about being a part of the charitable cause, cookery student Nathan Cropper said: “I think we’re all just really proud to help out the community in any way we can.

“What the The Rochdale Pioneers Museum has created is great and they deserve a lot of credit for bringing so many local organisations together for it.

“It is very rewarding to think I have taken part in making someone’s Christmas a bit better, we’re all looking forward to carrying it on and try to do some more good in the world.”

Cat Jessop, Community Engagement Officer at The Co-op, said: “The Rochdale Pioneers Museum is delighted with the meals being made by catering students at Hopwood Hall College. The families enjoy the tasty meals and are very pleased when they hear they are made by local students.

“We started the scheme in October, but now it is gathering momentum we are hoping to run the sessions in the New Year too.”