Food When - a recipe for success

Food When participants and artists with Martin Topham of Petrus and Simon Danczuk

A short book of recipes, stories and poems, entitled 'Food When', was launched at an event at at Danczuk’s Deli on The Walk in Rochdale on Thursday (24 July).

The book is a collaboration between the Petrus Community, which provide services to homeless people in the borough, and Cartwheel Arts, as part of their ‘Tell Us Another One’ programme.

The project brought service users from Petrus and people from the local community in Newbold together to look at issues around food, including healthy eating and ethical issues around food production and waste.

“I was delighted to see participants looking at issues of surrounding interesting and healthy food preparation,” said Martin Topham of Petrus, whose Green Gym project engages service users in growing food and maintaining green spaces in the community.

Two groups worked at the Petrus project on Beswicke Royds Street and Saint Peter's Community Centre, Newbold to look at their memories of food and the stories behind their favourite recipes. The groups were led by facilitators and artists from Cartwheel, led by Shirley May, and supported by Petrus staff. The project ran for eight weeks and included sessions of cooking and tasting the food at the kitchen at the Petrus Hub.

Danny Fahey of Cartwheel Arts was impressed with the quality of participants’ writing. “Food is something we can all relate to and talk about, and a rich source of memories,” said Danny, “but the quality of the creative writing from the group exceeded our expectations.”

This is the first joint venture Petrus and Cartwheel have undertaken and both Martin and Danny thought it was a great success, and hope that the two organisations can deliver more work together.

They would like to thank Rochdale Council and the Big Lottery Fund for their "generous support".

Copies of the book are available at local libraries, Danczuk’s Deli and Petrus projects.