A Very CRuNCHy September: 900 Young People, New Schools & Extra CRuNCHy
🥕 September at CRuNCH – What a Month! 💛
September has been a busy month at CRuNCH, with new schools on board, new faces joining the team and a rather exciting milestone to celebrate!
Our First Impact Report
We’ve published our first ever CRuNCH Impact Report, looking back at just how far we’ve come since we started delivering Cook5 in February 2025:
🥕 52 Cook5 programmes
🍳 260 practical cooking sessions
🧡 More than 900 young people reached
🍽️ More than 4,500 meals cooked
The numbers are wonderful, but it’s the stories behind them that really matter: teenagers discovering they can cook, trying foods they thought they didn’t like, growing in confidence and taking their new skills home to their families.
We got Extra CRuNCHy over the summer! 🥕☀️
August saw us pilot Extra CRuNCHy, an adaptation of our Cook5 programme for the summer holidays, in partnership with the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children’s Weight Management Team.
Over two days we cooked fajitas, curry and smoky black bean chilli with guacamole and salsa, as well as making healthy savoury snacks including hummus and tzatziki.
The food was only part of the story.
Many of the young people attending had felt quite isolated over the summer holidays and were struggling with low self-esteem. Over the two days, we watched them visibly grow in confidence as the kitchen gradually filled with chopping, sizzling, conversation and a lot of giggles.
By the end, they were cooking, eating and enjoying being together. It was a lovely reminder that learning to cook can give young people so much more than the ability to make a meal.
Safe to say, the pilot was a success and we’re already planning the next one!
Read the feedback:
🍳Back to school, our busiest term yet!
September has seen us back in school kitchens and, for the first time, we’re now running 10 Cook5 programmes concurrently this term.
That’s only possible thanks to the funding we’ve received and the fantastic volunteers who give their time to support our young people.
We’re incredibly grateful to them all, and very ready to make 2026-2027 even better than the last!
Welcome to Emily! 🧡
Part of that next chapter is our newest addition to the CRuNCH team, Emily Potter, our new Programme & Volunteer Coordinator.
Emily will be helping us coordinate our growing number of Cook5 programmes and supporting our brilliant volunteer community as we reach more schools and more young people.
You can contact Emily directly at emily@crunchtime.org.uk.
Joining The School Food Review
We’re also delighted to have joined The School Food Review, a group of 38 organisations including charities, unions, catering bodies, educational organisations and academics, all contributing to England’s school food system.
Governed by School Food Matters, Chefs in Schools, Bite Back, Sustain and the Food Foundation, the group is working to improve the quality of and access to school food and food education.
It was such an honour to have been invited to join the group and we’re really pleased to add CRuNCH’s voice to the conversation, particularly in championing practical food education for teenagers.
Our ambition remains brilliantly simple: every young person should leave school able to cook at least five simple, healthy meals.
There is still so much to do, but we’re heading into this new school year with real momentum and optimism.
Whether you’ve volunteered, donated, partnered with us, welcomed us into your school, shared our story or simply cheered us on, thank you. Every contribution is helping us make this happen.
Cooking Confidence. Changing Lives. 🧡🥕