Towards the end of 2024, Edinburgh Food Social worked with a class of S2 students from Castlebrae Community Campus who were taking part in a seven-week elective course. We love running these elective courses at Edinburgh Food Social. The long duration of the course means the young people can really sink their teeth into a project and are able to cap it off by cooking a community meal.
During our first session together, the young people decided that they wanted to end their course by cooking a community meal for the residents of Castlegreen Care Home. Students thought long and hard about what kind of food the residents might enjoy and decided to focus on familiar, easy-to-eat dishes that did not contain too much salt.

Some of the cakes, wrapped and ready.
During the following four weeks, the students honed their practical skills. Each session focused on the young people developing a particular skill, baking bread or producing garnishes, for example. As always, these sessions produced several teachable moments. Among the most memorable was the young people’s U-turn on molasses. As a pungent ingredient few of them had ever seen before, the students quickly dismissed it as ‘horrible.’ However, upon cooking with it, many students were amazed by its sweet, smoky taste. This is a prime example of how our classes give young people the opportunities, skills and confidence necessary to try (and fall in love with) new foods.
Each class also saw the young people produce something they could eat, either in the class itself or at home. Aside from a wonderful pear and apple cake (that proved to the young people that fruit can, in fact, taste delicious), we were most impressed by the students’ beetroot soda bread. Made with oregano, chilli and several other spices, these loaves packed a serious punch. One student was so proud of her own loaf that she almost dropped it as she showed it off to Edinburgh Food Social’s staff members! (You can learn how to make a similar loaf by signing up for one of our Fun with Flour cookery classes.)

A staff member and resident sharing a lovely moment.
The final week saw students arriving at Edinburgh Food Social at 8:30 as they prepared to serve their meal later that day. Prepped ingredients and some dishes the students had prepared the week before were taken over to the care home where they were given the finishing touches by the students themselves. Excitement grew as lunch time approached and before long, the young people were taking food up to the dining rooms where their guests were waiting.

One of the young people serving the main course.
Aside from preparing the food, the young people were also tasked with serving it to the residents. This was a daunting prospect as several of the residents were in the habit of taking their food in their own private rooms. Under supervision from Castlegreen Care Home’s staff, the young people ferried the food to residents in the dining room and those eating in their rooms. They performed admirably, striking up a rapport with various residents and informing them of how their elective had gone. Both the food and the young people’s manners were a real highlight for the residents, one of whom said, ‘It was such a nice surprise today to have my meal dropped off by a young, local chap.’
Once the soups, shepherd’s pie and mac and cheese had been served, it was time for dessert: A lovely, rich cake served with sticky toffee sauce and custard. This dish proved to be a huge hit with all the residents, and it was a perfect way to cap off a brilliant meal. Throughout it all, the students applied themselves with impressive discipline. As a teacher said of one of their students, ‘It’s great to see him getting this involved, it’s hard for him to get engaged in things sometimes.’

Bowls of the cake, custard and sticky toffee sauce.
Many of the young people were loath to leave and some even made plans with the care home staff to return and volunteer by themselves. They were a credit to themselves and the school and we could not be prouder of them.