Church group helps ex-homeless with healthy eating on a budget

Scottish Churches Housing Action has launched a new cookery book to promote healthy eating on a budget.

Launched last Thursday, Cooking For One has been written especially for single people who have not had many opportunities to learn how to cook but need a few tips to start.

It will be distributed free through the many local starter pack schemes throughout Scotland. Starter packs provide basic household necessities to people who are setting themselves up in a new tenancy, often after a period of homelessness.

Scottish Churches Housing Action Chief Executive Alastair Cameron said: “Many of Jesus’ miracles focus on food and drink – turning water into wine, feeding the five thousand.

"These are not just metaphors: food is a vital part of the whole of our existence, emotional and spiritual as well as physical.

"We’ve published this book to try to help people who have been homeless eat tasty healthy food at reasonable cost.”

Sue Rawcliffe of Community Food and Health (Scotland) said at the event: “We were delighted to award funding to the Scottish Churches Housing Action so that they could develop Cooking For One.

"We were impressed that they were involving homeless people in the production and working through their network of organisations to make sure this resource will not end up sitting in an office somewhere but will be fully used.”

Cooking for One, edited by Elodie Mignard of Scottish Churches Housing Action, has been supported by Community Food and Health (Scotland), the Celtic Charity Fund, Nicolson Square Methodist Church, Edinburgh, and the Borderline homeless charity.