Award winning chef backs Edinburgh organisation's crowdfunding campaign that aims to raise £10k to tackle food equality

One of Scotland's top restauranteurs, Fred Berkmiller, is lending his support to a social enterprise to help bring fresh, local produce and cooking education to the city.

Edinburgh Food Social, which has been set up by businesswoman Eleanor Cunningham, is aiming to raise £10,000 through crowdfunding website Kickstarter. The money will go towards a food truck providing cooking classes to local schools and communities.

We want to give people the chance to learn about seasonal food and offer them tips on how to cook really nutritious meals on a budget - Eleanor Cunningham

The mobile kitchen aims to tackle food-inequality head-on and provide those in low-income households with basic cooking skills and information about healthy food. It will also tour schools to teach pupils about local produce, menu-planning, and healthy eating.

Berkmiller, who was recently named Food Pioneer of the Year at the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards, said: “This is an excellent way to encourage young people and their parents to get in to healthy cooking.”

The French-born chef, who owns L’Escargot Bleu and L’Escargot Blanc in Edinburgh, added: “Decades ago, people relied on using locally grown produce to feed their families healthy and inexpensive meals and I think this project will help us to see a return back to that way of thinking.”

Cunnignham, who owns Edinburgh Larder, said: “People are often put off using fresh, local ingredients because they think it is an expensive way to cook, or because they aren’t confident about making healthy meals from scratch. We want to give people the chance to learn about seasonal food and offer them tips on how to cook really nutritious meals on a budget.

“The Food Truck, as we are calling it, will give us an accessible, approachable, and portable classroom that can get right in to the heart of communities and schools, which don’t always have the infrastructure in place to support food education.”

Following the successful trial of a number of projects using a rented food truck, Edinburgh Food Social now needs its own vehicle to support and grow the scheme.

Cunningham added: “Running the rented food truck is expensive and owning our own truck will mean we can focus our funding specifically on the projects we have in mind. As a social enterprise, any profits we make go straight back into the communities and schools we work with.”

Edinburgh Food Social has already secured funding to run cooking education classes with Gracemount Walled Garden, and the produce from the community garden there will be used in the new food truck.

The team recently spent two weeks working with pupils at Edinburgh’s St. Thomas Aquin's High School teaching young people about seasonal and local produce, menu-planning, and cooking nutritious meals. An on-going project with Fife Council sees the not-for-profit group providing healthy take-away meals to members of the public in exchange for a small donation.

The crowd-funding campaign, which officially launched this week, offers backers a range of rewards in exchange for donations. For example, those who pledge £10 will receive six seasonal recipe cards, while those who give £500 can enjoy a cooking class from the Food Truck for up to 10 people and enjoy the meal they have created. Other rewards include foraging courses, hampers, meals at Edinburgh Larder, and outside catering for up to 80 guests.

To find out more, or to donate, visit: http://bit.ly/EdinFoodSocial.