What is Kitchen Catalysts?
Kitchen Catalysts is part of Barking & Dagenham’s mission to make sure every resident can access healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food. It is rooted in the borough’s Good Food Plan, which aims to transform the local food system into one that is fair, diverse, sustainable and community-driven.
Empowering local chefs and connecting Communities
Barking and Dagenham, in partnership with BEC, is boosting community cooking access and empowering new community food leaders.
Kitchen Catalysts are local community leaders and residents who are passionate about the power of community cooking clubs. In 2025, we offered aspiring food leaders training in practical cooking facilitation and tips for launching a freelance enterprise. See what they learned here
The result is a list of 20 cooking facilitators ready to support local organisations or schools to start cooking activities. Some of these have already been employed to help get new clubs started, including an activity for parents at a primary school, a church group and a new community centre. By providing access to air fryers, we’re demonstrating that venues do not need full kitchens to provide community healthy eating activities.
In many cases, the facilitators are mentoring community organisation staff to run their own activities. And by signposting to places where lower-cost food can be accessed for the projects, we’re showing that cooking activities can be low-cost to run, as well as impactful for the community.
You can read more about the impact of cooking activities on residents here
Are you keen to launch cooking activities in your community?
Are you a local resident who wants to get involved with Kitchen Catalysts?
Get in touch: goodfood@lbbd.gov.uk
