BLOG | FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Food For Thought | Learner-led Blog Project 2022 - 2023

We wanted to use more of our online platforms to offer a voice to people learning English, whilst at the same time developing English language skills in a creative, meaningful and practical way. This blog aims to give people learning English the opportunity to voice their thoughts, opinions and stories in English in a creative, structured and reflective process. This is a 4-week rolling project run by Heart & Parcel volunteers, where previous blog writers will continue to mentor new writers to the project, and benefit from the help & support of volunteers to feedback, reflect and discuss their ideas before publishing. 

Below are the resulting blogs in their complete form. Please take a look and comment your thoughts and ideas to the authors!

The Bloggers meet twice monthly on Mondays. If you would like to be part of this blog and find out more information about the date and time of the session, please fill out the form below to be put into our WhatsApp group.

Heart & Parcel Blog

Fill out this form to join our monthly blog project! We have two sessions a month, and then time to write your blog with feedback from our volunteers.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT BLOG | Gnocchi: A Family Tradition, by Giada

FOOD FOR THOUGHT BLOG | Gnocchi: A Family Tradition, by Giada

I believe that talking about food, recipes, cooking is a typical topos of my people, perhaps even a preconception about us Italians. Thinking of my family, my friends, my previous colleagues left behind in Italy, I know that for most Italians this is not the case. We...

FOOD FOR THOUGHT BLOG | A Cost Paid Off, by Pat Tsang

FOOD FOR THOUGHT BLOG | A Cost Paid Off, by Pat Tsang

A Cost Paid Off Dear Piano White What a long journey!  Finally, I returned to my mistress again after six months of waiting and traveling.   Luckily, I am not a pet; otherwise, I could have died at any point in the container ship on my way to England.  ...

#BlackLivesMatter

#BlackLivesMatter

We’ve been watching the news unfold in front of us, the various events that have taken place over the last few weeks. We are moved, saddened, shocked and angry. We stand with the Black Lives Matter protesters and support those in America fighting for justice for the...

Donate to Heart & Parcel

Donate to Heart & Parcel

Donate to our project to support people ?learning English to flourish in their local communities and forge connections by developing English language and communication skills through the medium of food.

Why dumplings? why women? Why ESOL? Why supper clubs?

Why dumplings? why women? Why ESOL? Why supper clubs?

After three years of running our project, it is really important to reflect on why we decided to set up. The post below sets out the background research we did relating to women from communities who access ESOL provision. It also displays our attempts to fund raise to...

Past Reflections of an ESOL tutor

Past Reflections of an ESOL tutor

This was an excerpt from a piece of reflective writing  written back in July 2015 by founder and then ESOL tutor, Clare. Although written a while ago, she has decided to share this to contribute to the ongoing conversation of the direction for ESOL provision, and...

Recipe for Success: Making it as a community food project.

Setting up a community project: our experiences

As we have passed into our 3rd year running Heart & Parcel, we find ourselves looking back fondly at the work we have done, the women we have met and the hundreds of dumplings we have made (and eaten). Over the years it has been really exciting to see that we have...

ESOL & Cooking Lesson Plan

We thought we would share this lesson plan we have used about three times now with different groups. This is an all round lesson we have created that covers many skills. It works very well with group work and building conversation. More specifically for literacy and...

Eight Supper Club Reflections

Last week brought us to the close of our intimate supper clubs showcasing our dumplings that we have been making with women from migrant communities over the last seven months. For those that are unfamiliar with our project, we ran monthly supper clubs from March -...

A Recipe for Success: English and Dumplings

There are currently many women living in Britain who have a wealth of pre-existing skills and resources to offer, but do not have the required English language level to do so. These are the women that Heart & Parcel aims to support. What is ESOL and why is it in...

Unwrapping Poland’s Christmas Parcels

In the last two decades, pierogi (small, filled dumplings) have become the real deal in Poland. The calling card of our cuisine if you like, a worthy representation of our nation abroad along with bigos stew, kabanos sausage and of course Polish chleb (bread). Pierogi...

Policy, Pierogi and the Perceptions of Women

There are many important issues surrounding our project; their influence indirectly becoming the drive behind Heart & Parcel. Having worked as an English teacher with migrant communities and Karolina working as an advice support worker, I feel the need to discuss...