Charlotte gives Flintshire care-experienced young people a taste for cooking Caribbean food

A Holywell restaurant owner has given a group of care-experienced young people, supported by Action for Children’s Skills Plus project, a taste of the Caribbean with a Jamaican cookery lesson.  Charlotte Stanley owns Up a Yard restaurant in the town and is passionate about the positive benefits cooking can have on people in terms of their mental health and general wellbeing.

Charlotte said: ‘My day-to-day business is interacting and dealing with customers and people and staff, being a boss which is a lot.  Cooking is like a safe haven so when I’m having a bit of anxiety, or I’m stressed or my ADHD is flaring up and I don’t want to deal with anyone.  I think young people could really benefit from coming here and doing these classes, even 1-2-1 sessions and give them peace of mind, not doing it as a job, but as a hobby. 

‘Cooking at home, the doors are shut, the music’s on and that’s my comfort zone and that’s being passed on here with Action for Children and others at schools in the area.  It’s all for local children who may not have a choice or feel they have nothing to do.  It will benefit them a lot mentally, give them new skills, confidence, and a sense of accomplishment.’

Charlotte passed on her chopping skills and showed the group how to combine fresh vegetables and spices to make delicious, value-for-money food while minimising waste.

Ellie is a care-experienced young person from Flintshire and enjoyed the lesson.  She said: ‘I thought it was awesome and I learned how to make more dishes.  I’m a vegetarian and I learned how to cook healthily for myself. 

‘I think it’s really important for independence especially for younger people who have come from less fortunate backgrounds, it’s a great opportunity and I will definitely use the skills I learned in the kitchen with Charlotte.’

The Skills Plus team provide a therapeutic intervention based on Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) to improve the emotional and social well-being of young people who experience significant distress and relationship difficulties and struggle to maintain consistency in their lives. There is also a focus on working to give young people the practical and life skills to enable them to transition into happy, healthy adults.

Lisa-Jayne George, a young persons’ practitioner at the project, added: ‘Lots of our young people enjoy cooking, it’s therapeutic and helps with anxiety, depression and lots of things.  It gives a bit of headspace and the young women I support showed interest when the perfect opportunity came along, they jumped on it.

‘Just doing the chopping skills made them realise if you master that, it’s something you can take away to create lots of lovely food so they’ve learned really important life skills.  Charlotte’s an absolute star, really engaging and the young people have been saying how amazing she is, and they’ll be back!’