Bognor woman making home cooked meals for families in crisis

The initiative, called FED Community Kitchen, was founded by Aida Akmar Kaman, who moved to Bognor from Chichester two years ago.

Ms Kaman, who works at EcoSwap in the town centre, said she was surprised by the number of fresh ingredients left in the shop’s community pantry at the end of each day.

She realised not everyone has the means to cook fresh, nutritious food for themselves and came up with a plan to cook family sized and single portion meals, freeze them and, by working with Family Support Work, get them in the hands of families which need them most.

She said: “It’s about helping families in acute crisis. Think people who have gone through a bereavement, or child carers or even people who have been made redundant and are waiting for their benefits to kick in. We’re going to fill the food gap for a few weeks so they don’t have to worry about that.”

The food, which will be cooked in Ms Kaman’s extensive home kitchen, will be frozen and microwaveable, making it as accessible as possible.

Meals themselves will vary depending on what ingredients Ms Kaman has at her disposal, but they will always be freshly cooked, well prepared and healthy, says Ms Kaman. The first batch of food, she says, will be Turkey ala King- a turkey dish cooked with béchamel sauce, mushrooms, pimentos and green and red pepper. Ms Kaman says she hopes to explore different kinds of food as the project progresses.

To find out more about Ms Kaman and all her other projects, visit the FED Community Kitchen Facebook page.