For 18 months Mike Spackman has been Sheppey’s community chef – attending public events to teach basic cooking skills. He spoke to reporter Emma Grove about his quest to improve people’s eating habits.

The project was initially started by Kent County Council as part of its Towards 2010 strategy, which aims to make improvements to health and education across the borough.

The project was organised by Sheppey Matters, a charity based at the Healthy Living Centre in Sheerness.

At first, the community chef was exclusively for Islanders, but Mike has now taken his culinary skills Swale-wide and is being funded by the Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust.

Over the past year-and-a-half, the father-of-four has attended numerous community events to teach people how to cook from basic ingredients and put together nutritious meals as part of a healthy lifestyle.

He has also been running life skills cookery courses from children’s centres throughout the borough.

The life skills programme is based around cooking affordable, healthy food.
Mike, 53, used to work as a primary school teacher and he said it was working with younger children which has helped him make the community chef project such a success.

He said: “I had always seen there was an opportunity fo young children to learn more about food – to learn about tasting and how to make meals.

“I felt as a teacher if I was going to bring the two together – working with children and families and a personal passion for food – I had to look towards someone who was running a project of some sort.”

Over the past 18 months, Mike has worked with people from all walks of life and different organisations, including the Sheppey Prison Cluster and mental health services.

One of the highlights of Mike’s time on the Island was the Big Lunch, which took place in July.

It was a national initiative and Mike took part with a group of dads he had been working with from Seashells Children and Families’ Centre.

He had been doing a course with the dads which ended with them cooking a Valentine’s Day meal for their partners.

At the Big Lunch, Mike handed over the activities to the dads and they were able to teach people what they had learned.

Mike said: “It was satisfying to see the dads passing on their new-found skills.

“I felt that was a significant day when, for the first time, I was not at the front line and it was down to the families – that was a high point.

“The legacy I want to leave behind is families sharing the enthusiasm for cooking.

“I have the opportunity to share my skills and enthusiasm with people, irrespective of their background.

“Food brings families together and I get a great amount of emotional satisfaction from being with these people and giving something back.”

Mike also added that he wants to thank everyone who has supported him during his time on Sheppey and to all the schools which have let him base his courses there.

To stand a chance of winning Mike's services for an evening, see this week's Times Guardian.