Swale's community chef Mike Spackman has put change on the menu.

The award-winning cook has been given leave of absence by Sheppey Matters to spend the next two years helping families in Thanet.

Mike, 64, said: "I have really enjoyed my time in Sittingbourne and on Sheppey helping families cook on a budget.

"Now I will be doing the same thing on the Newington estate at Ramsgate as part of a National Lottery-funded Big Local project. They have similar problems to Swale and have one of the worst statistics for childhood poverty in Kent."

He had been commissioned to do one-off sessions with Ramsgate's JobcentrePlus on two previous occasions.

He admitted: "It all feels very different and yet, in many ways, very similar to when I kick-started the Community Chef pilot project in Swale back in March 2008. It was only supposed to last a year."

Mike and his distinctive Food Wagon, a converted Renault van with its own mobile kitchen, has been a familiar sight for the past 12 years, turning up at community events, schools, leisure centres, housing estates and hostels handing out easy-to-cook treats and giving hands-on advice on how to cook on a shoestring.

He has worked with prisoners and the homeless.

His signature dish has always been paella. "It’s colourful, cheap to cook, tastes good and is always a crowd-pleaser,” he said.

Three years ago he ended up on stage at Bristol's City Hall clutching the coveted Cook of the Year prize in the BBC Radio Four Food and Farming Awards.

He said: "“I couldn’t believe it when they announced I’d won. Jamie Oliver was on a big screen congratulating me.”

The competition was judged by chef Allegra McEvedy, who co-founded the Leon restaurant group and visited Mr Spackman and his team when they were serving lunch at The Quays homeless hostel in Crown Quay Lane, Sittingbourne.

She told him his work was making such a difference to people’s lives it should be copied across the country.

Mike, a former teacher, said: “When I was teaching, I noticed children were interacting less with food. That was the catalyst for me to change career and become a community chef.

"I really enjoy inspiring people to cook healthy meals. Cooking on a budget gives people the confidence to be adventurous in the kitchen and shows how to make a meal which is both tasty and nutritious.

“It is great to get families to spend time together cooking. It gives them a sense of achievement and allows them to believe in themselves and helps them live independently. Food brings people together.”

He added: “When I started, there were areas on the Island where people were dying 10 years earlier than others in Swale. Much of this was down to poor lifestyles and bad diets.

“We have done a fantastic amount of work since then but the job is still far from finished.

“I wince when I see youngsters going to school clutching energy drinks or buying packs of sausage rolls. This is not just about teaching people to cook. It’s more complex than that."

In a sideways swipe at the government's recent refusal to pay for school dinners during the holidays, which has since been overturned, he said: "There are even more families now struggling to make ends meet which is why I have been working closely with the Salvation Army and the Oasis Academy on Sheppey. But it shouldn't have to be that way."

In September alone, the Oasis Academy supplied free meals to more than 600 families out of term time, thanks to donations from food banks, Minster parish council, Sheerness town council and Morrisons.

Before he left, Mike was given a framed collection of photos and a special apron at Sheppey Rugby Club as a send-off by sheltered residents at Neptune House, Sheerness.

Despite Swale, and Sheppey in particular, having some of the most deprived wards in the country, the area has still had to fight hard to maintain funding for a community chef.

Mike's place is being taken by Jason Hurren who can now be seen at the wheel of the food wagon.

Mike, a father-of-four and a grandad of four, said: "He will, without doubt, keep the ship spot on course and inject his own ideas and drive."

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