Starting mid September

The first six week ‘Food with Friends’ Club will start on Monday 13th September at The Powerhouse Community Centre, Church Hall, Saint Aidan’s Way, Gravesend DA12 4AG – 01474 351 620.

Each session costs £2.50.

From 6pm – 7.30pm every Monday for six weeks http://www.staidangravesend.org.uk/

Food with Friends is a “come dine with me” social eating club. It will be run by a partnership led by ECM Workbank working with North West Kent Advocacy service and Ether Creative. The project will run until next June 2011 and will provide a fun social, informative activity for adults with learning disabilities in the Dartford and Gravesend area. The Food with Friends idea originated from the Learning Lunch which is a concept that is part of life in Japan. Young people are taught how to come together as a social group to eat. The idea helps participants learn about organising, preparing, etiquette and socialising.Ether Creative have transferred and transformed this idea into a new working model that can be applied for adults with learning disabilities for them to gain these skills and enjoy the experience. Adults with learning disabilities in the North West Kent area can come along to the six week courses and together will pilot a “come dine with me” social activity which will enable them to participate, often for the first time, in socialising and inviting people to take turns to prepare a social event. We hope to achieve the following outcomes:

• • Adults with learning disabilities will have formed stronger social networks

• • They will have participated in fun, social activities

• • They will have experiences an activity that they can then replicate themselves and take forward on their own

• • They will have learned how to put a social event together

• • They will have learned how to consider the food choices they make with regards to nutrition, calorie content and price

• • They will have worked together as a team to achieve a fun, social event