Are you a Carer or organisation
who supports Carers?
By definition, a carer is anyone, including children and adults who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support. The care they give is unpaid. (REF NHS) Sarah has worked with a number of carers over the years and found that there are often a range of issues that makes their life that little bit harder. These might range from money being really tight, food allergies, fussy eating, lack of understanding of what to cook, stuck for meal ideas or you may just lack confidence in the kitchen.
Carers do an incredible job looking after others — often while balancing busy lives of their own. We’re here to make that a little easier with friendly cooking groups and practical nutrition resources designed to support health, confidence, and connection.
Our cooking sessions, offered both online and in person, give carers the chance to learn new cooking skills, share ideas, and meet others who understand the challenges of caring. These sessions are supported through community grants and have proved a wonderful way to bring people together.
You’ll also find a range of free and paid-for fact sheets here on our website — packed with simple, trusted information to help carers and the people they support enjoy healthy, delicious food every day.
NUTRITION SERVICES FOR CARERS
How Wise About Food supports carers
Reaching out to carers is a vital way of offering support, by offering cooking classes, it is not only the cooking that is important but the interaction with the group that is so powerful and the friendships that are formed.
Nutritional Workshops for Carers
In 2020, Wise About Food became a community interest company, winning a grant to provide online cooking workshops for the organisation Carers in Herts during the pandemic. These workshops helped to tackle isolation for many carers. Having linked up with Newsom Recovery College the carers nutritional courses could not have been more successful, we had over 20 carers on each session.
Moving forward, we are now back to offering classes in person and have run a few in various locations in Herts with funding from Carers in Herts and Watford Council and Hertfordshire Community Foundation.
There are a number of issues that are important to carers such as Interaction with other carers, the chance to talk, to swap ideas and to feel supported. Often they are looking for new ideas for recipes, ways to make money go further and advice on nutritious meals that are on budget or dealing with allergies/ food intolerances or having to deal with a fussy eater.
How it works...
What are the benefits?
Cooking workshops for carers provide an opportunity to get ideas and inspiration to make easy healthy recipes at home. Meeting regularly with other carers provides a chance to meet other carers, sharing experiences and enjoy some much needed respite. Sarah’s workshops are hands on and fun. Many participants comment on how they would be lost without these workshops. The workshops provide not only the well needed respite but provides carers with the chance to form new friendships with others they may not have met due to their caring responsibilities.
How will the workshops be delivered?
The workshops if in Hertfordshire or London will be delivered in person. If out of the area they will be delivered online and the group will be encouraged to cook along, although watching is just fine too.
Sarah is keen to emphasise that the food cooked or the topics of the sessions are determined by the participants.
Contact us to discuss your requirements or to discuss
how your workshops could be funded.
HOW TO FUND A NUTRITION WORKSHOP FOR CARERS
If you do not already have funding to run a Nutrition Workshops for
Carers, Wise About Food is a Community Interest Company meaning
we can apply for grants on your behalf.
Wise About Food, we are committed to working with a range of communities and groups to not only help promote nutrition awareness but also to bring people together and to forge friendships.
A grant is money that is available from funders that wants to support work in the community. Being awarded a grant is what enables Wise About Food to carry out the amazing work that it does in the community. To date we have been lucky enough to win a selection of grants that has enabled Sarah to reach a wide selection of the population and has enabled her to make a difference to their lives.
If you’re an organisation or community group and have an idea you would like to talk about, please get in touch to discuss how we can help you.
We’d also love to hear from funders so please get in touch to see how your funding can make a difference!
FIND OUT HOW GRANTS CAN WORK FOR YOU
Nutritional Fact Sheets for Carers
Support is offered via a selection of fact sheets that have been produced for Carers. Offering down to earth advice around areas that might not have been thought of. Sarah also offers nutritional advice and information on other topics for Carers and many other sectors.
Nutrition and Food Support for Carers
You look after everyone else. Let us make one thing a little easier.
FOR CARERS AND THE ORGANISATIONS THAT SUPPORT THEM
A carer is anyone who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction — and who does it unpaid. That is millions of people in the UK, many of whom are so busy looking after others that they forget to look after themselves.
Wise About Food CIC has worked with carers for many years. Food comes up again and again — not just as a practical challenge, but as something that can bring real joy, connection and relief when the right support is there.
Frequently Asked Questions: For Carers
Yes. And you deserve it.
Carers are among the most overlooked people when it comes to health and wellbeing support. You spend your energy, your time and your emotional reserves looking after someone you love — and your own needs quietly fall to the bottom of the list. Including food.
Wise About Food CIC runs cooking sessions specifically for carers. They are practical, welcoming and genuinely enjoyable. They give you the chance to:
- Learn simple, quick meals that work for your life as a carer
- Meet other carers who understand what your days actually look like
- Have an hour or two that is just for you
- Try new foods and pick up ideas you can use at home
- Ask questions without judgement in a warm, informal setting
Sessions are run both in person and online. They are well attended and the feedback is always the same — people come for the food and stay for the connection.
Find out what is running near you or get in touch to ask about sessions for your carers group. Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk or call 07706 576 260.
Yes — and this is something Wise About Food understands deeply. Carers come from every background and every income level. Some are managing comfortably. Others are genuinely on the breadline, particularly if caring has meant giving up work or reducing hours.
Good nutrition does not have to be expensive. Some of the most nutritious meals you can make cost very little:
- Lentil soup made from a bag of red lentils and whatever vegetables are in the fridge — under £1 for several portions
- Tinned beans on wholemeal toast — cheap, filling and genuinely nutritious
- Egg fried rice with frozen peas and sweetcorn — quick, cheap and satisfying
- A slow cooker turns the cheapest cuts of meat and pulses into proper meals with almost no effort and very little electricity
Wise About Food sessions always work with real budgets. No expensive ingredients, no equipment you do not have, no recipes that require a trip to a specialist shop. Just simple, honest food that works for real life.
Ask about budget cooking sessions for carers near you. Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk
This is one of the most common challenges carers tell us about — and one of the most stressful. Managing someone else's dietary needs on top of everything else you are carrying takes real energy and knowledge that most people were never given.
Whether you are cooking for someone with a serious allergy, a medical dietary requirement, a very restricted diet due to dementia, or a child or adult who is an extremely fussy eater — Wise About Food can help.
Sessions and resources can cover:
- Understanding food allergies and intolerances and what to avoid
- Simple allergy-friendly meal ideas that the whole household can eat
- Managing fussy eating or very restricted diets with patience and without pressure
- Adapting everyday meals for someone with swallowing difficulties or dementia
- Reading food labels to spot hidden allergens
If the person you care for has complex medical dietary needs, we will always point you towards the right professional support — a GP referral to a dietitian can make an enormous difference and is something many carers do not know they can ask for.
Get in touch to find out what support is available. Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk
Yes — and this is exactly why these sessions exist.
Caring can be one of the loneliest experiences there is. You are often housebound, your social life shrinks, and the people around you do not always understand what your days are really like. Meeting other carers — in a relaxed, informal setting where nobody is judging anyone — can be genuinely life-changing.
Wise About Food cooking sessions for carers are well attended and always lively. People come not knowing anyone and leave having made connections that often continue long after the session ends. The cooking is the excuse. The connection is the point.
Sessions are available both in person and online, which matters for carers who cannot always leave the house.
Contact your local carers centre or organisation to ask about Wise About Food sessions. Or email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk directly to find out what is available near you.
You start exactly where you are. No experience needed, no judgement and no such thing as a silly question.
Wise About Food sessions are designed for people who are starting from scratch just as much as for people who already cook. Sarah has worked with carers who have never made a meal from scratch in their lives and who left a session feeling confident, capable and genuinely surprised by what they made.
You will not be asked to follow complicated recipes or use equipment you do not have. Sessions are practical, relaxed and built around what is actually useful in your life.
Get in touch to find out about beginner-friendly sessions near you. Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk
Frequently Asked Questions: For Organisations that Support Carers
This is a gap that Wise About Food CIC was specifically built to fill.
Carers organisations do incredible work. But practical food and cooking support — the kind that actually changes what people eat and how they feel — is rarely part of what is on offer. Carers tell us again and again that food is a real challenge. The organisations that support them often know this but do not know where to turn.
Here is how it works: you say yes, and Sarah does everything else.
Sarah brings the knowledge, the session plans, the recipes, the equipment and the ingredients. She designs sessions specifically for your carers — taking into account the range of budgets, experiences and needs in your group. You provide the people and the space. Sarah handles everything else including finding the funding to make it happen.
Sessions can be delivered in person at your venue or online, which is particularly valuable for carers who cannot easily leave the person they care for.
Get in touch at sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk to talk through what your carers need. The first conversation costs nothing.
Yes — and this conversation happens more often than you might think.
The carers who come to Wise About Food sessions arrive with a wide range of needs. Some are struggling with budget. Some are dealing with complex dietary requirements for the person they care for. Some are isolated and just need to get out of the house and meet people. Some have never cooked and are overwhelmed. Some are managing fine practically but are exhausted and need something that is just for them.
What works is a session that holds space for all of these needs at once — practical enough to be genuinely useful, relaxed enough to feel like a break, and social enough to build connection.
Sarah has been running sessions for carers for many years. She understands the dynamics of a carers group and how to create something that people actually want to come back to.
Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk to have a conversation about what would work for your carers. No commitment needed.
You do not need a budget. You just need to get in touch.
Wise About Food CIC is a community interest company which means Sarah can apply for grants to fund sessions for carers organisations. She will ask you a few simple questions about your organisation and the carers you support, handle the application and let you know what is possible.
You do not need to do anything except say yes and answer a few questions. Sarah brings everything else.
Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk with a brief description of your organisation and the carers you support. We will take it from there.
Wise About Food CIC is run by Sarah Scotland BSc Nutrition, Exercise and Health (Hons), a community nutritionist based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
Sarah has worked with carers and carers organisations for many years, delivering practical cooking and nutrition sessions that are warm, non-judgemental and genuinely useful. She understands the particular pressures of a carer's life and designs sessions that meet people exactly where they are.
Wise About Food is a community interest company. Every penny goes back into the work. We are here to help people, not to make a profit.
Sessions are available in person across Hertfordshire and online UK-wide.
"Food is the appetiser. What we are really about is helping people realise what they are capable of."
Ready to talk?
No pressure. No commitment. Just a conversation.