MEALS ON A BUDGET

The idea of healthy meals on a budget came from a collaboration of several ideas based on our own experience. We noticed that the local takeaway sold cheap yet unhealthy meals. Opinions in the group were that they believed these meals were sometimes one of the few options for people on a limited budget, but we had realised that there were other options available for us. We wanted to share with others that you could eat a filling and healthy meal without having to compromise on the cost.

Additionally, some of us have had to use local foodbanks to help during times of financial difficulty. Although they welcomed and were very grateful for the food, they found that it would sometimes be hard to create a meal out of what was in these bags.

As a group we decided to use the inspiration of new food boxes such as ‘Hello Fresh’ to create food bags made up of healthy, low-costing food, with a recipe card attached to it that could then be given to families across Barking and Dagenham.

We piloted this by hosting a community meal where many families from across the community were invited to come and experience seeing the food created, eating together and taking a sample box home. We were able to then demonstrate how easy it was to prepare and cook these meals. This was a roaring success – one family was so happy that they even made a second for a neighbour and we have been told that this meal is now a regular to their weekly meals!

We aimed to continue doing these regular community meals but due to COVID-19 we could not continue with these. We have made some videos to share other recipes, with step-by-step instructions, that are affordable, healthy and easy.