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Fink Street Food teaches John Rankin School pupils about healthy diets and mental wellbeing at cookery session




Dozens of schoolchildren learnt the importance of a healthy diet and its impact on mental wellbeing at a special cookery session.

Several year 5 John Rankin pupils worked in pairs to produce filled potato skins and healthy flatbread pizzas at the school on Tuesday, January 16.

The four hour-long sessions which contained 10 children each were led by the team at Fink Street Food, a local social enterprise catering company specialising in Middle Eastern fusion cuisine.

Fink Street Food cookery session at John Rankin School with year 5 pupils
Fink Street Food cookery session at John Rankin School with year 5 pupils

Fink co-founder James Reid said: “It was really good.

“The idea of the event was to not only get kids thinking about the importance of eating a healthy diet and how that can impact your mental wellbeing, but also building new skills, building self-esteem and confidence, all of which is really important to developing good mental wellbeing for children.”

Mr Reid started Fink along with Lewis Greenwood, both 31, in 2019 having worked together in the catering business for six years.

Fink Street Food co-founders James Reid and Lewis Greenwood with John Rankin pupils
Fink Street Food co-founders James Reid and Lewis Greenwood with John Rankin pupils

Fink is a social enterprise, which means that over 50 per cent of all its profits must either be re-invested into the business or donated to a charitable cause.

Fink regularly donates to and supports No 5 Young People, a youth mental health charity based in Reading.

Mr Reid said: “We are both passionate about supporting mental health causes.

Fink Street Food cookery session at John Rankin School with year 5 pupils
Fink Street Food cookery session at John Rankin School with year 5 pupils

“Everyone’s got their own experiences with mental wellbeing.

“My mum suffers from bipolar and Lewis had a lot of experiences with staff members suffering from quite bad mental health.

“This channelled our perception of mental wellbeing and the fact that we wanted to start a business that could do a little bit to help.”

Fink Street Food cookery session at John Rankin School with year 5 pupils
Fink Street Food cookery session at John Rankin School with year 5 pupils

Mr Reid and Mr Greenwood regularly serve customers at events and spots throughout West Berkshire in The Fink Tank, their food truck.

The pair are hoping to save enough money to buy a second truck in the near future.

To find out more about Fink Street Food, visit https://www.eatfinktalk.com/

Fink Street Food cookery session at John Rankin School with year 5 pupils
Fink Street Food cookery session at John Rankin School with year 5 pupils

The duo will be returning to John Rankin next week to complete another day of cookery sessions.

To see more pictures from the cookery sessions, pick up the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, January 25.



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