How our Programme works

Are you thinking of joining our course?

Changing Diets, Changing Lives: Our Food Resilience Programme

Our programme is designed to address the Social Determinants of Health – the main reasons why people in poverty are eating poor and expensive diets.

Our focus is on people facing multiple challenges to eating well, because that is where we can make the most difference.

We are interested in long term outcomes not short term fixes, and all our work is focussed on how to achieve that.

Our programme has been co-created with input from over 5,000 face to face participants who A/B tested everything we do to see what works, what they liked and what they didn’t. This is what makes Bags of Taste unique.

Our programme is highly structured and yet has a high degree of personal support and flexibility. There is a clear syllabus and clear targets for the participants – but the staff and mentors ensure that each participant is able to work at their own pace, has individual, personal support and is able to adjust recipes to their own personal tastes.

Step 1: Find the participants

The Bags of Taste programme is designed for people facing multiple barriers to eating well and we are passionate about reaching them. Years of experience of running in-person classes showed us that the people who need our help most do not attend, for a range of reasons including disability, mental health, caring responsibilities and chaotic lives.

We have dedicated staff in each area whose sole responsibility is outreach to find the most suitable participants and find and work with local referral partners. We partner with organisations including the DWP, Social Prescribers, the NHS, and charities supporting people with issues such as disability, poor mental health, ex offenders, debt and addiction, to find and encourage participants to join.

The people we work with have extremely challenging circumstances and often chaotic lives. They are the most at risk of health inequalities. To ensure we’re reaching those most in need, we score all participants on our programme for a range of challenges (which include mental health, disability, long term health conditions, insecure housing, long term unemployment, single parents) and expect participants to have a minimum score of 4. Typical participants have scores of over 5. Click here to see more about some of the cohorts we work with

Step 2: The Mentors

The people that we work with have often tried and failed for years to improve their diets – that is why they have come to us. Changing your diet is hard and it’s key to have someone fighting your corner with you – this is what our mentors are for. They are there to support, encourage, cajole, listen and provide the accountability that many participants need. They work with the participant at their own pace and help them to goal set and engage with the tasks at hand. This work is highly person-centred and a critical component of the programme.

Our mentors are drawn primarily from the nutrition and food teachers’ community through our partnerships with the Association for Nutrition (AfN) and the Food Teachers’ Centre. This high quality support is augmented by our training in working with vulnerable participants, Trauma Informed Practice, our carefully crafted syllabus and our staff members who speak individually with each participant, and are also present in every group alongside the mentors.

By connecting with people on WhatsApp and over the phone, we can support them at the time of their choosing, and without the demands of a face to face course. Each mentor is directly responsible for their allocated participants whose progress they they will track and support throughout, and do a final reflective learning session with them over the phone at the end.

We are able to reach those who feel uncomfortable joining groups, or have physical limitations that make travel hard. Parents of young children, or carers who can’t leave their relative alone. Those with chaotic lives or on shift work who struggle to show up in a particular place at a particular time. Elements of what we do reduce social isolation for many; we also build confidence, which allows participants to engage with society in the future.

We show people that healthy eating is not only good for you, but fun, tasty and even social, and help build their habits for the long term.

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Step 3: Bag Delivery

Participants receive a delivery of all the ingredients required to complete the course, and some critical equipment such as measuring spoons and a knife sharpener. This is enough food for 7 meals.

Also included is a full set of paperwork including illustrated techniques (in about 5% of cases we mentor participants over the phone, as they may not have a smartphone or internet), and local shopping & services guide which is tailored for their specific location with details of local shops, current pricing, and support services they may find useful

Step 4: Participant support & cooking

Participants are supported by both staff and mentors, who work together to ensure the participants engage with and complete the course. It is common for participants to go “off radar” and it requires individual attention, care and sensitivity to get them back on track to completion.

If participants have children, they are encouraged to involve their children in the cooking which often changes cooking from being a chore to a fun family activity. It also means the children are more likely to try and eat the food.

Step 5: Learning by doing

Rather than lecturing or delivering an academic course about budgeting and nutrition, our approach is to engage participants through a series of fun activites that build skills and understanding, all of course accompanied by delicious food.

Thus diabetics learn about healthier carbs through trying them; participants feel the health benefits of increased veg in their diets by actually eating more veg, and they experience the financial benefits of eating less takeaways by having more money in their wallet at the end of the week.

These practical benefits are what encourage the participants to continue with the behaviour change long after the programme is over.

Step 6: Graduation

Completers receive a graduation pack with 10-15 further recipes, a certificate and a small gift
These specially selected recipes build on techniques learnt on the Mentored part of the programme, and cover takeaway favourites like Chinese and Indian for around £1 a portion.
Our evaluations show that after 6 months, 70% of people have cooked these recipes.

Step 7: Long Term Support groups

Participants are invited to join our ‘follow on’ Bags of Taste online groups (via Whatsapp or Facebook)
They can access new recipes and videos, and there’s a weekly recipe “challenge”
Groups have thousands of members and people share cooking, budgeting and shopping tips
Being part of a friendly and encouraging community inspires and motivates people to continue on their cooking journey.

Picture 7 (What we do - long term support groups(1)

These stages, combined with our personalised support and the course materials/ingredients/equipment delivery make much more of an impact than what may appear to be simply cooking 3 recipes. Students are equipped, encouraged and motivated to make changes to their diets and continue making healthier food choices.

They have built and learned resilience and long term strategies to deal with the challenges they faced to cooking at home, as well as experienced the benefits in their lives – more energy, pride in their cooking, improved heath, better family life. These, combined with the very real financial savings (average £1,000 a year) provide a strong incentive to continue with the habits they have been forming over the previous 2 weeks.