News: Ministry of Food in Rotherham could be a victim of funding cuts

Celebrity chef and healthy-eating campaigner, Jamie Oliver fears that the Ministry of Food in Rotherham town centre could be a victim of funding cuts.

The centre, in All Saints' Square , opened in 2008 as part of Oliver's TV series and remained open with the help of £130,000 a year from Rotherham Council.

Last year, the centre taught 6,500 people how to cook using fresh ingredients. These included everyone from firemen to teachers, care-home workers to school kids - when the centre put up a poster in the window advertising summer holiday classes for kids, the places were filled within 24 hours. Classes are consistently booked out for months in advance.

In a bid to help with cashflow, plans have been submitted to enable the unit to operate as a cafe at lunch time and a cookery school in the mornings and afternoons. New signage and a seating area is also proposed.

Similar centres have been replicated in Bradford and Leeds and Oliver is now urging on businesses to get involved and support the local centres as public sector funding dries up.

He said: "I've heard that the Ministry in Rotherham could be a victim of funding cuts. The local council there is doing everything it can to keep the Ministry open and I hope it will succeed but I can't understand why keeping it open should even be in doubt at all.

"Each Ministry of Food Centre is booked up at least three months in advance so the demand is there. It's abundantly clear that this is one of the few strategies that is actually working that helps people overcome their problems with food.

"I understand that cuts need to be made. I understand that these are difficult times. But I can't understand why something that can save billions of pounds in the long term can be at risk because of a few million quid. In my opinion, cutting the funding for local projects which directly empower and transform thousands of lives is both foolhardy and a false economy, particularly in a country which is spending billions on obesity-related diseases.

"So here's the plea. If the local councils can't afford to set up and keep running these inspiring, revolutionary, socially vital places, then it's up to local businesses to get involved.

"I'm talking to businessmen and women up and down the country - some of them in charge of huge multi-national companies, some of them running smaller but successful local firms. All of them appreciate the need to do something about our obesity problem and all of them also understand that being involved with a community project like a Ministry of Food centre, is good for business."

Jamie Oliver website

Images: jamieoliver.com