SINCE it opened in Bradford five years ago Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food is accomplishing its mission of helping people learn basic cooking skills.

In his Channel 4 series, Jamie’s Ministry of Food, the celebrity chef looked into why many home cooking skills had disappeared. Inspired by his findings, he decided to launch Jamie’s Ministry of Food centres in cities across the country, including Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle, Rotherham and in Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia. Ministry trucks also take cooking lessons to areas with the aim of delivering basic food education and to get communities cooking.

Says Jamie: “This is all we wanted to do; this is what we wanted to achieve. Whether the programme is delivered in Ministry of Food Centres, workplaces or schools, it’s really important that we teach people how to cook and how to shop to live a longer, healthier and happier life.”

To date, the Bradford centre has delivered 300 eight and ten-week courses to community groups and organisations such as charities and schools and has cooked up around 200,000 meals. The centre also run Saturday morning children’s courses and cookery demonstrations out in communities, and it has taught youngsters with conditions such as diabetes, members of the Blind Association and stroke survivors how to cook healthy meals.

Participants who have taken part in courses range in ages from eight to 80. Some are driven by an interest in food, and a desire to expand cooking skills, while others are seeking to learn more basic skills.

But according to project manager, Soraya Overend, the Ministry of Food isn’t solely about cooking. While the impetus is to learn how to cook, the courses also offer opportunity to socialise and forge new friendships. “Some people don’t get out of their homes or interact with other people, so if they come with community groups they are cooking a recipe, talking to other group members and sitting down and having a meal whereas somebody in their own home may not have anybody else to eat with. It becomes a social event for them,” explains Soraya. “It’s important to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons.”

She says the project also encourages participants to get out of the habit of eating fast and processed food and to eat healthier options instead. This is going some way to helping to tackle the nation’s obesity crisis.

Soraya and her team also aim to get more involved with health improvement and weight management programmes run by Public Health.

But does it work? Soraya says the Bradford centre is working with Newcastle University on an evaluation of the project but new research focusing on the programme at the Ministry of Food centre near Brisbane, Australia, carried out by Deakin University and the University of Melbourne, suggests the programme is “successful in achieving many positive personal, dietary and potentially health impacts for participants”.

The study was found to be the most convincing proof to date that Ministry of Food centres are successful in helping people to improve their health by learning to cook.

Perhaps the best testimony is from those who have benefited from the experience. Linda McLean – floating support worker for Bradford Women’s Aid, which helps women and children who have experienced domestic abuse through its refuge, outreach and re-settlement services – has experienced first hand the benefits Jamie’s Ministry of Food can bring.

Linda explains that funding through the former Primary Care Trust enabled refuge workers to take a group of women there for two-hour sessions over eight weeks.

She says the women they work with are vulnerable and are getting their lives back on track after suffering from domestic abuse. The course didn’t just equip the women with the skills to cook, it also taught them how to cook on a budget and helped to increase their confidence and self-esteem – another key element of the programme.

“It was good for our women to go down there and learn about healthy eating,” says Linda.

There will be plenty of healthy eating advice when the project holds its fifth anniversary celebrations at its John Street venue on Friday. The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Mike Gibbons, is expected to attend the event. As well as health advice stalls there will be a variety of Halloween activities in the city’s Oastler shopping centre.

For more information about Jamie’s Ministry of Food, Bradford, call (01274) 435279.