Healthnic Diet presentation on Cyclades Preservation Fund workshop

The Vardakeios School participated on the environmental workshop organized by the Cyclades Preservation Fund in Posidonia, on Syros island on the 30th of October 2019. The participants were members of environmental organisations from 13 Cycladic islands. The Vardakeios School presented Healthnic Diet project and focused on the benefits of nutritious diet based on local traditional products with low energy footprint. Main emphasis was given on the e-platform and especially on the Practical Guide and the Toolkit which are the two main tools for organizing Healthnic workshops. It was also pinpointed the contribution of the Guide on the zero waste effort as it gives advice on how to preserve food and use leftovers in new recipes. Participants were interested to listen on the work done with multicultural groups and asked for more details about the project and its outputs.

3rd Italian Multipler Event

Diciannove held its third multiplier event among Condiviso members in Genoa. The participants closely followed the presentation of the project and were very impressed by the learning-by-doing approach that, during the workshops, also became socializing-by-doing. Sharing an experience like cooking together, sharing a meal, reliving the experience through digital stories cancels the differences and shows that people are more similar than what it might appear. The participants entered the project results and discovered the Healthnic Laboratories as a place where people acquire knowledge and skills on how to follow a healthy diet, how to choose foods and how to share individual awareness through a technological tools, to name just a few. Diciannove is proud to have contributed to spreading the contents of this project.

Irish Multiplier Event

HEALTHNIC “Healthy and ethnic diet for inclusion” is a 2-year Erasmus+ funded project that promotes healthy eating based on traditional food from different ethnic cuisines. The main target groups come from various backgrounds including refugees, immigrants, long-term unemployed and indigenous groups, who wish to develop their food and cooking skills and interact in a multinational environment.
The coordinator of the project is the Vardakeios School of Hermoupolis (Syros, Greece), and partner organisations are: Danmar Computers LLC (Rzeszów, Poland), Diciannove Società Cooperativa (Genoa, Italy), Institute of Technology Tralee (Ireland) and Merseyside Refugee Support Network (Liverpool, UK).
A multiplier event was held in the TIRC Centre on the 25th of September, where Dee Doody from “Lets get cooking with Dee” gave a demonstration of healthy cooking dishes during the event. The participants were the TIRC’s women’s group who love to cook together. Theresa Elumelu was one of the participants and said: “The project was made our day because the information given made our women feel empowered about the food project.”
To find out more about the project please visit the website for the project: http://healthnic.eu or http://ittralee.ie

Download the 4th Newsletter!

Read the 4th Newsletter of Healthnic Diet project with the last news on the project!

MRSN Healthnic Multiplier – Menu of the day

“Entrée/Starters”
6 September 2019 Seana welcomed everyone to the MRSN Healthnic Multiplier event held in the Chas Rawes Hall at Asylum Link Merseyside. In attendance were more than 40 participants from Refugee and Asylum organisations, the Local Authority, others from the health and education sector and faith organisations.
Margaret showcased an overview of Healthnic with a Power Point presentation highlighting key aspects of the Healthnic project with photographs from across the two years. This included training and meetings with the four European partners from Greece, Italy, Ireland and Poland, the integrated workshop at John Archer Hall exploring healthy and diverse cuisines in a safe and friendly atmosphere, and how to develop digital stories in an inclusive and fun way. Attention was drawn to healthy eating emphasising the medicinal and nutritional values of herbs and spices and the benefits of using local and seasonal produce such as taste and value for money.
The Healthnic website was introduced – Guide, Toolkit and Digital Stories. All participants were encouraged to visit the website, download the Guide and use the Toolkit to develop a similar workshop in their own organisations.
“Sides”
Then Ewan introduced the digital story making process and pointed out the simple method used to encourage the development of digital and language skills, all of which increased the confidence of the Healthnic workshop participants. A selection of digital stories was then shown including some produced by our European partners.
“Main Course”
The stage was now set to bring the Healthnic workshop to the days event. Ruth and Jannatul took everyone on a journey from their Bangladeshi and Pakistani talking through with a live demonstration of how to create amazing lentil Dahl, roti an chapatti. The hall filled with an amazing aroma of coriander, chilli and garlic wetting everybody’s appetite for the lunch to follow.
This cheap, nutritious and very tasty dish was served to all participants who ate together replicating the flavour of the Healthnic workshop that took place in November and December last year.
“Extras”
During lunch Margaret demonstrated making a selection of herbal salts with a mix of rosemary, parsley and mint with raw salt from Spain. All participants were invited to have a go.
“Pudding”
Everyone was encouraged to stay connected with Healthnic by using the Guide and Toolkit with their own groups and in their communities.
“Take-away”
A ‘lunch bag’ was given to each participant to take home:
– Cooking workshop pamphlet
– Menu for Dahl
– Menu for Herb Salt
– Menu and information leaflets donated by Unicorn Co-operative Grocery
– Small jar of Herb Salt – Parsley; Rosemary; Mint; Mint & Garlic

2nd Multiplier Event by Vardakeios School in Athens at Caritas Hellas

The Vardakeios School organized on the 11th September 2019 the 2nd Multiplier Event of the Healthnic Diet project in Athens at Caritas Hellas. It was an evening where professionals from different fields that work with refugees (sociologists, language teachers, workshop facilitators) had the opportunity to be informed about the intellectual outputs of the project (Practical Guide and Toolkit), the digital videos that were produced but also to ask questions related to the implementation of the Healthnic Diet workshops. On the second part of the event they had the chance to participate in a cooking session and to experiment with fruit, vegetables and spices in order to create their own Mandala based in a specific value (solidarity, acceptance, unity) and then to prepare as a group a salad with the materials they have already used.All the participants expressed their content on the knowledge gained and showed interest in organizing a Healthnic workshop. The facilitators assured them that they will be available to provide guidance if needed.

The English Multiplier Event

Come and join Merseyside Refugee Support Network (MRSN) and colleagues from Asylum Link Merseyside for our Healthnic Celebration and dissemination event on Friday 6th September from 11.30am…

Find out how our healthy eating and community cohesion project has brought refugee and local communities together – it has worked so well we want to share the experience and hope other groups will give it a try!

****
FRIDAY 6TH SEPTEMBER – FROM 11.30AM
@ St. Anne’s, 7 Overbury Street, LIVERPOOL L7 3HJ

“Menu” = Agenda

– “Starters” = Welcome and Overview about our Healthnic project + sharing our Project Guide and Toolkit
– “Sides” – Digital stories from our participants
– “Extras” = A wee taste of using natural salts with added herbs and spices (not too much though!)
– “Main Course” = Cooking demonstration and lunch – Rice and dahl with a twist (yummy)
– “Pudding” = Keeping connected and using the Guide and Toolkit for your own groups and communities.

Come and join Merseyside Refugee Support Network (MRSN) and colleagues from Asylum Link Merseyside for our Healthnic Celebration and dissemination event on Friday 6th September from 11.30am…

Find out how our healthy eating and community cohesion project has brought refugee and local communities together – it has worked so well we want to share the experience and hope other groups will give it a try!

Eat well, be nice, share, live…

Manuale d`uso, Zestaw narzędzi, Εργαλειοθήκη Healthnic Diet

We have now available online the Healthnic Diet toolkit translated from English in Italian, Greek and Polish. Don`t miss the opportunity to explore the free web-based interactive manual for professionals who would like to organise Healthnic Diet workshops.

If you are a professional working with refugees or multicultural groups you have also the opportunity to participate in Multiplier Events in Athens, Liverpool and Tralee and get more information about the intellectual outputs (Practical Guide and Toolkit) and to be involved in experiential learning activities.

For further information about the Toolkit and/or the project please contact us at: info@healthnic.eu or find us on social media

Don`t miss the 2nd Healthnic Diet Multiplier Event in Athens

The Vardakeios School is organizing a 2nd Multiplier Event of “HEALTHNIC: Healthy and Ethnic Diet for Inclusion” project on the 11th of September 2019 from 18.00-22.00 in order to disseminate the intellectual outputs (Practical Guide and Toolkit) in organisations based in Athens that support refugees. The Event will be held in Caritas Hellas Center in Neos Kosmos (Rene Pyo 2, Neos Kosmos). Caritas Hellas is an organization that supports refugees by providing accommodation, job and financial counselling, language courses and several other activities for social integration.
“HEALTHNIC: Healthy and Ethnic Diet for Inclusion” is an Erasmus+ project that started on October 2017 and now that finalizes its activities presents to you its work. The main target groups come from various backgrounds including refugees, immigrants, long-term unemployed and indigenous groups, who wish to develop their food and cooking skills and interact in a multinational environment. The workshops enable participants to acquire basic skills such as home economics and healthy eating education, supported with food and nutrition glossaries and food preparation methods. In addition, participants gain ICT skills and create information/educational digital stories focused on the knowledge gained of both food culture, traditions and healthy eating.

The Vardakeios School invites professionals that work with refugees to participate in this presentation that focuses on:
• the structure and available information of the Healthnic e-platform
• the intellectual outputs that were created during the last two years: the Practical Guide and the Toolkit that offer useful material and guidance for any professional that would like to organise a Healthnic workshop
• the Digital Storytelling Method and the videos that were created by the participants of the local workshops
The participants will have the opportunity to participate in culinary creations of dishes and emotions
For more information and registrations contact us at: 0030 2281082573 / 0030 6936497398or send your email at : vardakeios@gmail.com

The Toolkit for organizing a Healthnic Diet workshop is now available online

We are happy to present the Healthnic Diet Toolkit, a free web-based interactive manual for professionals who would like to organise Healthnic Diet workshops. These workshops give the opportunity to intercultural groups- especially to refugees, immigrants and vulnerable target groups- to acquire cooking, healthy eating habits, language, cultural awareness and ICT skills.
The Toolkit includes a range of educational resources with emphasis on participatory learning activities, do`s and dont`s, digital stories, workshop descriptions, testimonies, photos, comments and advice from the facilitators and participants that took part in the local Healthnic workshops that were organized in the five partner countries last Autumn.
It also reflects the work that has already been done on the creation of the Practical Guide which is an interdisciplinary manual with various thematics and step-by-step instructions. Together with the Toolkit it can be a useful aid for facilitators of such workshops.
For further information about the Toolkit and/or the project please contact us at: info@healthnic.eu or find us on social media

Italian Healthnic Workshop second edition

Diciannove organized a second session of the Healthnic workshop in Bussoleno (Torino). The workshop took place at Casa Bussoleno, a facility run by Frassati cooperative, including a social housing service, accommodation and recovery facilities for both locals at risk of social exclusion, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
The workshop saw the partipation of ten people coming from Armenia, Nigeria, Togo and Italy. We all share flavors, tastes, cooking and well-being experiences and memories. We cooked together learning from each other and sharing recipes and tips. We enjoyed this second round of the Healthnic workshop, been honored to spread and disseminate the importance of a healthy, ethnic and ethic diet.

Polish Multiplier Event

We are happy to announce that we have organized the multiplier event in Poland! Danmar Computers, from Rzeszow in Poland, has successfully presented the project and its outputs on May 30, 2019, while the multiplier event at the Regional Development Agency. What interesting did the participants find out about? We presented the digital stories that were created in the project, spoke about the Healthnic Diet workshops, with the audience sharing their opinions and experience, as well as presented one by one the project results. Our audience was glad to find out that they can download the results via the website and will continue to follow the project to see the Toolkit in the Polish language.
Thank you!

Italian 2nd Multiplier event

In order to meet the requests from different stakeholders from various Regions, Diciannove hosted a 2nd Multiplier Event in Reggio Emilia. The audience was composed by representatives of social cooperatives and regional associations. Participants followed the various steps of the implementation of the project with attention and interest. After the presentation of the project outputs, we received a significant number of questions regarding the gathering of more specific information and suggestions focused on the indications to favour the transfer and the replication of the Healthnic diet workshop in their facilities and in new targeted audiences. The concept of facilitating the inclusion process of people through food has once again proved to be a win-to-win idea and practical strategy of passing advice on healthy nutrition, respecting traditions and awakening personal creativity with the creation of digital stories. Diciannove is already on the way to organize another event to increase the dissemination of such precious concepts.

The greek Multiplier Event

The Greek Multiplier event was held in Vardakeios School on June 22nd from 17.00-21.00. Despite the hot weather participants that had registered the previous days attended a workshop that consisted in presentations of the project and its outputs, as well as “learning by doing” activities. The facilitator Maria Krina focused on specific principal values of the Healthnic workshops: joy and inspiration, solidarity, collaboration and harmony, respect and acceptance. The participants were divided into 4 groups and were given one of the above values to focus on. Each participant had to design first a “mandala” from a variety of materials: herbs, spices, dried nuts and vegetables and then share materials with the other members of the group in order to make a salad. The participants really enjoyed the process and had an idea of the atmosphere of the local workshops. In the end, many participants from schools and adult institutes expressed their intention to organise a similar workshop in their workplaces. Their enthusiasm made us decideto hold another multiplier event during September.

Don`t miss the Greek Healthnic Diet Multiplier Event

Saturday 22/6/2019 17.00-21.00 at Vardakeios School

“HEALTHNIC: Healthy and Ethnic Diet for Inclusion” is an Erasmus+ project that started on October 2017 and now that finalizes its activities presents to you its work. The main target groups come from various backgrounds including refugees, immigrants, long-term unemployed and indigenous groups, who wish to develop their food and cooking skills and interact in a multinational environment. The workshops enable participants to acquire basic skills such as home economics and healthy eating education, supported with food and nutrition glossaries and food preparation methods. In addition, participants gain ICT skills and create information/educational digital stories focused on the knowledge gained of both food culture, traditions and healthy eating.

The Vardakeios School invites you to participate in this presentation that focuses on:
• the structure and available information of the Healthnic e-platform
• the intellectual outputs that were created during the last two years: the Practical Guide and the Toolkit that offer useful material and guidance for any professional that would like to organise a Healthnic workshop
• the Digital Storytelling Method and the videos that were created by the participants of the local workshops

The participants will have the opportunity to participate in culinary creations of dishes and emotions

For more information and registrations contact us at: 0030 2281082573 / 0030 6936497398
or send your email at : vardakeios@gmail.com

Italian 1st Multiplier Event

Friday 24th May saw the first round of the Italian multiplier event. The event flew pleasantly following the scheduled agenda, and the participants have been particularly active and interested. All participants evaluated positively the event and various letters of interest have been signed with the indication to duplicate and transfer the project outputs and the Healthnic spirit in new local and regional scenarios.
Having had such positive feedback might push to organize other events to further disseminate the Healthnic spirits and outputs.

Last Healthnic meeting’s poetic summary

The last project meeting took place in Tralee (Ireland) on 16th and 17th of May 2019.
During the project, the whole agenda has been accomplished, and the result of the discussion has added a new step to the official and formal minute of the meeting. It was added a so called “poetic summary”, which combined the words spoken by the participating partners into a more educational and experiential format which has the shape of a poem. The poetic summary is an educational approach where the imagery, form, words and symbolism get unpacked from the ongoing talks, words are extracted from the participants contribution and “re-packed” into a poetic form to gain new and deeper meanings which are left to the emotional understandings of all the listeners in parallel to the formal contents of the minute or report.
This is the poetic summary of our last project meetings:

16th May 2019
welcome to grey sky
it might turn
to sun or shower
emotional to meet you
for these final days
the ocean the wild
natural silence
it is tasty
so do we start
introducing oneself
introducing the sections
baking bread
foreseeing the flavour the smell
have a look
fit into structure
or leave it
the way it is
for others to check
what / who’s already there
no share options
on your conclusions
when it comes
as a matter of correctness
can we just change colour?
blue
strange colour blue
reflect the path
no judge within
it should not be so sound
bring your credit
to the noon
it is not easy
to find so many
to fit in your room
so here we are
who will count
who shall be invited
consider protection
of personal boundaries
slippery issue
what should be covered
experiences and opinions
on what happened
share ideas
on how to motivate
one comes and stays
at the end
be prepared
for simple evaluation
simple questions
the pleasure of the path
that once was shared
add samples
report what has been done
within such and such a-time
free to take part
for your interest and will
not binding
blinding
individual uniqueness
different focuses for questions to vary
not necessity to have the same
to make life easy
not to complicate
within a common ground
add singular specificities
adjust to the good way
are we ok with this?
With what we have done
numbers are done
what still might be done
social followers
for those who don’t like it
even if you should know
you probably won’t
everything
from names to the colour of your eyes
so have a break before leave
not fresh enough for the day
still save an hour for tomorrow
fix the image of today
keep the evidence evident
use the free trial
you have to pay
for us is enough
for us is ok
invitation is colourful
but the date is wrong
there might be something you’d like to change
to adjust to present time.

17th May 2019
share the vocabulary
of experience
taste cohesiveness
sense of togetherness
in archetypical kitchen
made the spirit
of partnership
mutuality
respect
everlasting dignity
openness
transparent diversities
for a challenge and path
for tastes that last


The next project activities will regard the multiplier events which will be held in all partner countries to disseminate the project outputs.
Check this platform to be informed on your closer event.
Come and meet us starting from the Italian multiplier event on Friday 24th May.
More info on the event here: multiplier event italiano

Download the 3rd Newsletter!

Read the 3rd Newsletter of Healthnic Diet project with all the news for the period Oct.2018-Apr.2018.

We are waiting for you at the Italian multiplier event

“HEALTHNIC Healthy and Ethnic Diet for Inclusion” is an Erasmus + project lasting two years that promotes a healthy diet based on traditional ingredients from different ethnic cuisines. The main recipients are groups of people who come from different socio-cultural contexts, including refugees, immigrants, long-term unemployed and local groups who want to improve the quality of the food they prepare, their culinary skills and interact in a multicultural environment.

Diciannove invites you to present the project results with a dynamic and experiential event during which it will be possible to discover:

  • how the educational platform works
  • the contents of the guide to assist trainers in the preparation, duplication and adaptation of HEALTHNIC workshops
  • the practical suggestions contained in the toolkit-user manual for the management of the workshops
  • the digital stories created during the project with the digital storytelling tool

We hope many of you will come.

The project coordinator is Vardakeios School of Hermoupolis (Syros, Greece), and the partner organizations are: Danmar Computers LLC (Rzeszów, Poland), Diciannove Società Cooperativa (Genoa, Italy), ITT (Ireland) and Merseyside Refugee Support Network (Liverpool , UK).

ITT presents the Irish Healthnic Workshops

The Irish Workshops were held in the Adult Learning Centre in Newcastlewest, Co Limerick and they commenced as an evening class on Tuesday 16th October 2018.
The participants were a fabulous group of Moldovan, Romanian, Russian and Portuguese most of whom work together in a factory in a neighbouring town. The sessions were weekly and we were able to combine our workshops with an allocated evening language class scheduled for these participants.

Our workshops were facilitated by Alex McKillican as the course tutor and Claire Russell as the nutritionist. Valerie McGrath and Kristin Brogan also assisted in the facilitation of the workshops. The practical side of cooking together was combined with the theory part of the guide. The highlight of the workshops was the eating together at the end of each session. The last workshop was held in week eight and was accompanied by some German Christmas sweets by Kristin and various festive traditions were discussed based on the diverse cultural background of the participants.

Valerie McGrath was responsible for the recording of the digital stories and we will have five digital stories available and a “welcome” note by the tutor Alex.

Overall all participants are very pleased with the results of the workshops and the shared experience.

Tasty Christmas and a Healthnic New Year

The Healthnic Diet team wants to wish you all a Tasty Christmas and a Healthnic New Year. Enjoy your Christmas holiday around a table big enough for all.

Summary of the Polish HEALTHNIC DIET Workshop

We are happy to announce that the HEALTHNIC DIET workshop that was organized in Poland was a complete success. Participants was eager to listen, learn and practice, as well as share, discuss and engage in all workshop activities.
What happened during our sessions?
The first session was about getting to know each other and learning about the benefits that the workshops will bring. Participants also learned about the impact that certain diets have on humans, as well as how to choose ingredients to make a healthy meal.
The second session was about food traditions in Poland. This was when participants shared their experiences and spoke on the selection of both traditional and tasty dishes. Much time was devoted to instruction on how to select the best ingredients, with the presentation of fruits, vegetables, wheats and many more, brought by workshops participants.
The third and fourth sessions were concentrated on putting knowledge and skills into practice. Participants were engaged into preparing healthy dishes. However, first they precisely divided ingredients for each dish and discussed the nutritious value. Use was made of cooking books that participants shared among one another. Then came time for the cooking.
The fifth session was a summary of the workshops, gained knowledge and newly acquired skills. For this purpouse introduced was the idea of digital stories. Participants learned how to create own digital stories and became familiar with those already available on the HEALTHNIC DIET website. This allowed for starting works on the creation of own digital storytelling on the topic of Polish dishes and the celebration of traditional Polish cuisine.
Workshop participants will meet once again to review the digital stories, to afterwards publish the most creative one on the project website.

End of the Greek Healthnic Diet workshop

The Greek Healthnic workshop finished its sessions on Tuesday 4th December. The second part of the workshop was dedicated on the digital storytelling process. The participants with the help of their facilitators were divided in 3 groups and created 3 stories that reflect ideas from all the members of the groups and also one more which is produced by all the participants. In order to do that they recalled childhood memories, previous experiences but also moments from the cooking part of the workshop. They had the chance also to learn and practice on how to create a storyboard, to record their voices and use an editing programme in order to create their video. In the final day emotions flowed easily and everybody, participants and facilitators, expressed their great content about the whole experience. Next meeting for everybody will be the annual Book Bazaar of Vardakeios School on Saturday 15th of December where we are going to project the produced videos and the participants are going to prepare appetizers for the guests and inform them about the Healthnic Diet project.

8th Annual Book Bazaar in Vardakeios School- Presentation of Healthnic Diet project

Vardakeios School organizes the Annual free Book Bazaar of Greek and foreign second hand books on Saturday 15th December 2018 at 18.00.
During the bazaar the participants of Greek Healthnic Diet workshop will project their digital videos, produced in the workshop and will prepare on site cold food. They will also give information about the project.

Fifth day of the Liverpool Healthnic workshop

28 November, Merseyside Refugee Support Network’s fifth and final Healthnic cooking session.
Before embarking on cooking the dishes that participants planned at the last session, there was a discussion and activity which aimed to deepen and expand knowledge of the many ways to use herbs and spices in cooking.
After researching herb and spice combinations essential to many cuisines across the world, each group produced a specific combination – Jerk seasoning (Caribbean), Garam Masala (Indian subcontinent) and Baharat (Middle East) – grinding a mix of spices with a pestle and mortar (new words for some participants towards overcoming language barriers and building the glossary). Everyone had a mix to take away to inspire and enhance their everyday cooking at home and share with friends and family. Participants developed an increased awareness and knowledge of spices and combinations including those regularly seen on supermarket shelves.
The activity further strengthened the sense of community with the group. As beautiful aromas filled the air, individual stories and memories about childhood and home were shared about tastes, smells and feelings which engendered a sense of security and pride about home. By sharing memories and focussing on similarities across cultures and countries an appreciation and understanding of all cultures was enhanced developing a greater sense of inclusion for all.
Cooking the final intercultural meal began with participants relaxed and enjoying the experience, incorporating all the knowledge from the previous sessions about healthy eating, nutrition, diversity and affordability.
Healthnic brought diverse communities together but was not just an exchange of cultures and cuisines it was a vehicle to learn and reflect about the health benefits of new and older recipes transforming the taste and diversity of each culinary dish.
Next, digital story-telling.

Fourth day of the Liverpool Healthnic workshop

21 November, Merseyside Refugee Support Network’s fourth session of the Healthnic workshop was jam-packed with activities, planning, reflection, learning and cooking with a focus on maintaining a healthier diet.
So, to give energy levels a boost participants formed three groups (‘carrot and ginger’ – immunity boost, ‘beetroot and lemon’ – immunity boost and ‘kale and lime’ – moisture and detox) and made a juice cocktail from vegetables, herbs and spices. A significant quantity was produced so everyone could savour a shot of each distinctive cocktail. All that was needed were the disco lights, as the atmosphere buzzed with discussion about individual taste preferences. The sweetness of the blood red beetroot shot took it to the top of the charts, whilst the bitterness of the pea green Kale shot came last.
Now super energised, knowledge on the properties of herbs and spices was presented including information about how herbs and spices help maintain vitamins and add flavour.
In groups stories, reminiscent of a cherished childhood meal were shared, fascinating tales including the Caribbean breakfast of blue crab, callaloo and bread fruit. These reminiscences informed how particular foods, herbs and spices have come to influence flavours and tastes across cultures and generations.
Next, in an individual exercise, participants reflected on their personal diet and considered changes that could be introduced towards a healthier eating regime and its value.
Returning to group activity, participants used a recipe board to plan and cost ingredients for a dish in the final cooking session next week. Prime consideration was given to healthy, nutritional and affordable foods. With the consideration of Healthnic’s inclusion goal each participant modified the dishes with a culinary influence from their own country.
Finally, it was time to cook and eat. Today, each group was produced a different course for lunch using local and seasonal produce flavoured with herbs and spices.
Socialising over the meal of vegetable soup, beetroot salad and apple, cinnamon and nutmeg crumble everyone conferred about the benefits of whole grain over “white” grain and reflected on the cost of the ingredients for each course, reinforcing the question of affordability, nutritional value and importantly of taste, when using fresh local and seasonal ingredients linked with nutritional value and taste.

Third day of the Liverpool Healthnic workshop

The third session 14 November introduced herbs and spices with a focus on culinary and medicinal uses.
All together we talked about how we used herbs and spices. In three groups – Chives, Parsley and Coriander, our first activity matched a spice and herb with a description of its medicinal properties as its health benefits. Spontaneously stories were shared about natural remedies that have been handed down through generations “from home” and are still used today.
Our facilitator Rosie, asked everyone if they could identify the contents of a small jar of herb salt (basil, garlic and raw salt) through smell and taste. Then in a group activity we chose a cocktail of herbs from the garden considering taste preferences and medicinal qualities – for example – mint, calendula petals, garlic and salt.
Everyone had their individual jar of herb salt to take home, store for a week in the fridge and use. Preserving herbs this way allows them to be used like a stock cube.
Next, each group prepared a seasonal salad with their group herb (chives, parsley or coriander) to be the dominant flavour – transforming its taste of season.
The salads were served with baked potato and Ali’s delicious tomato smoked beans flavoured with garam masala and smoked paprika, a cheap and nutritious autumnal meal. The discovery of new tastes and unusual flavours in today’s lunch drew consensus that previously held reservations about using herbs and spices in home cooking were to be abandoned.
After eating we were joined by Ewan and he introduced the group to digital storytelling. He showed examples of several two minute digital stories created in the Erasmus+ Tell Your Story 2016 project. This helped our participants focus on their own stories in a context of food.

Second day of the Liverpool Healthnic workshop

November 7, we returned to the John Archer Hall kitchen for the second session of the Liverpool Healthnic workshop. This day focussed on using seasonal and local vegetables.
Three groups were formed, each with diversity of participants, for an activity to identify which English vegetables were in season throughout the year. This exercise was enriched with information about differences in duration of the seasons and seasonal produce from the various home countries.
November is a season of abundance in England so we have plenty of fresh and economic vegetables available. In our next activity, we created a recipe board for a dish influenced by each member of the group.
The predominant ingredient used by the three groups was tomato because of the abundant harvest available from the community garden – combining economy and nutritional value. Each group chose a dish to cook and illustrated the influences with national flags.
A traditional Turkish tomato omelette (menemen) was cooked in a frying pan with vegetables and eggs and given an English finish by grilling the top until the egg was cooked through, served with a Sudanese Peanut salad and Pakistani chapati.
Sharing ideas, working together and eating together is enhancing the bonding of our Liverpool Healthnic family.

First day of the Liverpool Healthnic workshop

It was the last day of October and the first day of the Liverpool Healthnic workshop at the John Archer Hall based in the heart of the Toxteth community.
Session one began with introductions and all together we shared with what we had for breakfast – tea and toast the most popular start to the day!
We began to build group relationships through open discussion with a few icebreakers, using pieces of fruit (healthy eating being a focus of the day) and learnt a little about each other.
In groups we exchanged ideas about the essence of our diverse traditional cuisines with the similarities that exist across ‘borders’ transpiring naturally.
All together we discussed and agreed joint aims and rules for our sessions to create an enjoyable, respectful and safe experience.
in groups, we began baking bread. This was a bonding as well as educative activity in which we shared expertise, tips and stories. With sticky fingers, we learnt more about each other, and worked out stretching and pulling until the dough was smooth and ready to shape and bake.
While the bread baked, we explored the John Archer community garden and picked coriander to add to the soup that was provided for lof unch and mint for tea.
As everyone was smelt and tasted the wide variety herbs, memories and stories flooded out with stories from England, Pakistan, Turkey, Sudan, Tobago and Burundi.
As we returned to the kitchen the beautiful aroma of baking bread whetted our appetites reminding us it was time for lunch. The bread was sliced into ‘doorstep’ chunks and served with a bowl of nutritious carrot and lentil soup.
Over lunch, our Heathnic community continued to discuss the essence of our cuisines and agreed plans for the next session.

Closing of the cooking part of the Greek Healthnic workshop

The Vardakeios School started its local Healthnic workshop on the 16th of October and closed the cooking part of the seminar last Thursday, on the 15th of November.
The participants of the workshop is a mixed group of 16 immigrants and local unemployed people consisted of people coming from Albania, Argentina, Egypt, Hungary, Poland, and Greece. The sessions were held twice a week for 4 hours each time.
Through experiential activities, the group used their memories, acquired habits, personal preferences and cultural elements all related to food in order to approach food culture in a more interactive way. The facilitator of the workshop, Maria Krina, used this process as a vehicle to create a strong bonding between them but also to show them easy ways for nutritional yet multi-collective diet. What remains as a feeling from all the people involved in this undertaking is the optimism that people can always find ways to connect with each other especially when they collaborate in issues such essential as food. Creating, sharing, feeling, tasting, learning together was a beneficial and inspiring process that keeps on giving meaning to our everyday life. An experience that helps us come together with people we think as “strangers” in a respecful, collaborative and creative way.

A short description of the sessions

First week
During the first two workshops, we worked on getting to know each other and creating a bond by sharing personal information and baking bread together.
All different cuisines started to unfold their secrets allowing us to talk about seasonal products, wholemeal grains and their importance for a healthy diet.
Second week
We embarked on a journey into time sharing memories and understanding that each dish is the mirror of the history of the land and its inhabitants.
The group expressed a strong need for learning more about healthy eating, so during the workshops this week, we talked a lot about ways that can help us change our diet and establishing more healthy habits. We recorded our weekly menus and started thinking of the changes we would like to make.
We talked about the importance of water in our diet and watched a short film about Dr. Masaru Emoto’s water experiment.
But since cooking is the issue and the joy we improvised integrating all the different cooking ways and newly acquired knowledge and made salads using buckwheat, millet, lentils, and fresh vegetables and talked about the importance of the six tastes.
Third week
We started by cooking different pumpkin pies and learning to roll the dough. Filo in Greek!
We shared different recipes and from those countries that have no such tradition, we used dough recipes changing them in order to be healthier using whole meal flour and less salt.
While waiting for the pies to bake we did a new healthier weekly menu and each one made a self-contract about the changes he or she wanted to make. We decided to make our own water experiment energizing personal water bottles using the words LOVE and HEALTH.
Then we created six new recipes, which, while integrating all cooking traditions, had a more “Greek” flavor.
Fourth week
We cooked the recipes of the previous week.
● Stuffed zucchini with herbs and a traditional Albanian sweet dish with wholemeal rice long forgotten even in Albania with a Greek touch.
● Lentils “giouvetsi” with wholemeal pasta in the oven and lentil salad in a Greek – Hungarian way.
● Cabbage with rye and herbs and “politiki”, cabbage salad with a lot of Egyptian and Polish influences.
Herbs and spices appeared on our tables and new knowledge about their uses together with the magic of their aromas made our day!
We shared stories the aromas brought up and had a lot of fun together with a bitter-sweet sentiment of nostalgia.
Fifth week
We cooked the leftovers of the ingredients improvising with a stronger touch of herbs and spices, as we never had food leftovers!
● Broccoli balls with an Argentinian – Egyptian sauce
● Millet “puree” with yogurt and spices
● Chickpeas balls with yogurt sauce
● Pie with “horta” ( greens)
Each dish had its own unique spice mix each group created that made the difference.
1. marjoram, caraway seeds, fennel seeds, green pepper and a pinch of coriander for the pie
2. cumin, caraway and fennel seeds, black and red pepper, oregano and spearmint for the chickpeas
3. wicker, black cumin and fenugreek seeds with a few allspice berries for the broccoli
We came up with easy, healthy solutions about shopping and cooking fast and easy nutritious dishes.
We looked at our contacts to see how we are progressing and we all did well. We were all very supportive of each other, making jokes about the difficulty we all have to change.
We set a date for the next meeting around the table sharing what all will cook at home. So we will start working for creating the digital stories in a warming, festive way eating food cooked with love and lots of new knowledge.

The digital storytelling part will follow for the next three weeks with meetings once a week where the participants will have the chance to create their own digital stories related to food.
If you want to know more about all the local Healthnic workshops that are now in progress and watch the produced videos visit the project’s platform at www.healthnic.eu and download the guide to learn how to build and run a Healthnic workshop: http://healthnic.eu/guide