Residents at Dyfrig House, Solas’ homeless service in Cardiff have been ‘Cooking for Recovery’ and last week learnt how to make pizzas from scratch.
Ian believes that food is an important part of people’s recovery from addiction. “When you’re in your addiction, you don’t care about food at all. You only care about your next drink or drug use. Your taste buds go, and you don’t enjoy food anymore.” He joined in the pizza making workshop and learnt how to make the dough base and tomato sauce, and chose his favourite toppings. “It was a happy atmosphere. People are all in different places in their recovery but food helps to create a bond and gets people together. When you’re in your addiction you can be dragged in different directions, but creating a bond and getting together you have a family community. It helps us to remember that we are all the same. None of us are any different, and none of us should judge those at a different stage in their recovery. We all need to support one another, and bonding over food really helps. It’s good to have good food”.
Gareth also joined in the workshop. When Gareth first moved in to Dyfrig House last year he didn’t have much confidence in cooking and relied heavily on take-away and ready-made meals. He has been attending the Healthy Eating workshops with Jon Burgess from the Cre8 team and now helps to prepare communal house meals, including Sunday dinners on a regular basis, and was accepted as a volunteer in a café in Cardiff. Service users at Dyfrig House love to cook and will soon be embarking on a ‘World Food’ project, researching and preparing dishes from around the world as well as hosting a Bistro Evening for a small group of guests including the Minister for Social Services and Public Health, Rebecca Evans AM.
Article created – 30th August 2016
