YOU CAN COOK | YCC in Action

"Bosco is an engaging and charismatic speaker with an important message about public health and environmental sustainability in Scotland: we need to cultivate a closer relationship with food. This is central to Bosco’s mission to empower the next generation to grow food locally, to develop culinary knowledge and skills, and to foster a closer connection with people and planet".

From Rowan Jackson, Programme Director of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Edinburgh

"My kids love YOU CAN COOK and You Can Grow! They’ve enjoyed watching the edible garden grow at their school and then learning how to cook with fresh produce. Bosco and his team are always full of fun energy ☺️"

From Emma McDonald, Facebook

"I've watched Bosco and YOU CAN COOK evolve over many years and never cease to be amazed by their passion and enthusiasm in promoting health and wellbeing, community spirit and, above all else, cracking good food! Wonderful seeing young people gain skills and experience growing then cooking food they have produced at You Can Grow. Can't wait to hear about the next chapter. Keep up the good work!"

From Karen Palmer, Facebook

"On behalf of Walkerburn youth club I would like to thank Bosco and his team for the fantastic learning opportunities and support they have given our youth club, YOU CAN COOK is a fantastic organisation that helps to teach people of all ages to cook healthy and substantial meals without spending lots of money and that there is no such thing as food waste, so from all at Walkerburn youth club THANK YOU!!"

From Heather Lees, Walkerburn Youth Club

"YOU CAN COOK is an inspiring company. Bosco spreads genuine enthusiasm and energy through all his projects. It is wonderful to watch YOU CAN COOK grow and continue to spread nutritional know-how to communities, bringing all ages together with joyful cooking!"

From Clunie Phipps, Facebook

"Attended a YOU CAN COOK session in St. Boswells Village Hall last year. Crammed with information, fun, a chance to get your sleeves rolled up and get involved with loads of recipe ideas to take away, everyone who came along was bowled over by the energy and enthusiasm of the session. Would highly recommend the experience for anyone."

From Marie Higgins, Facebook

"Financial Inclusion Project Borders would like to thank the YOU CAN COOK team for delivering the series of ‘Cooking on a Budget’ workshops for us throughout the Borders over the past three months. The feedback from those attending the workshops has been excellent."

From Sandy Brydon, Financial Inclusion Project Borders

"I became aware of YOU CAN COOK through Alex Wilson who ran the Edible Garden at my local primary school. In my late 40's, I guess that I was surprised to find that there was still lots for me to learn about growing my own food. Alex and the team helped me to appreciate how I used my garden and helped me to build vegetable beds. I now have five and do my best to plan annual rotations. From time to time, I still visit the garden that's now being run by another Alex (Smithson) and I am grateful that it still plays a huge part in our community. As well as her continued work with the children from the primary school, Alex has also got the children to help me with the planting of the town's flower beds. The 'Edible Garden' project as it's now called, is amazing and has become an integrated part of the community in Innerleithen."

From Gordon Daly, Facebook

"They visited Kingsland Primary School a few years ago and my daughter was very fortunate to be one of a small group of children picked to do a course of cooking, she loved it and is now a better cook than me and still cooks the recipes she learned back then to this day. Bosco, you and your team are amazing you make food and cooking so enjoyable for children"

From Shirley Turnbull, Facebook

"On behalf of 2nd Peebles Guides, I would like to thank YOU CAN COOK for the second round of cooking classes they have run with our girls. All of the girls really enjoyed cooking with Evelyn and have taken recipes home and some have recreated the food they made at guides. Well done YOU CAN COOK, you have clearly made a great impression on the girls!"

From Hannah Moss, 2nd Peebles Guides

"Spectrum Support have been working with YOU CAN COOK since last May and it has been a truly brilliant experience! Our class has attended weekly sessions in the Community Garden project that involve planting, picking, building and general maintenance of the garden. The staff have all been wonderful with the pupils differentiating the activities for our pupils and facilitating an enthusiasm for gardening. These sessions have been extremely meaningful for the pupils and over the time, they have all really enjoyed seeing the end products of their hard work. The potato dig was like digging for treasure! Most of the pupils in the class have now also transferred their skills and enthusiasm to home, helping parents in their own garden. A wonderful learning experience for both pupils and staff!"

From Louise Hayley-Murray, Spectrum Support, St Ronans Primary, Innerleithen

"The family Support service have worked with YOU CAN COOK to provide a cooking group for some of our service users. The group has been very successful with the participants enjoying the combination of improving their cooking skills, learning more about food and nutrition and the social aspect of eating together and enjoying healthy home cooked food. The staff are all knowledgeable and have introduced some new ideas to the group that have been embraced by them. We as a service have been delighted to work with such an exciting and vibrant organisation."

From Kirsten Jonassen, Support Worker, Scottish Borders Council

"I wanted to pass on my thanks to Bosco and Aiveen from YOU CAN COOK for running several successful cooking sessions with my Scouts from Peebles Scout Group. Cooking activities are always popular with our young people but having a professional supervise a cooking session,showing just how easy it is to create great food from simple ingredients, was a real bonus in our teaching process.It complimented the Scout leaders' sessions very well as it focused on the normal kitchen environment, something which for us is normally difficult to recreate. Aiveen also passed on really helpful information to the young people about the ingredients in the tasty recipes and why they are so good to use. When a new set of Scouts comes along we'd love to have them back again."

From John McCusker, Scout Leader, Peebles Scout Group

"Just wanted to say thank you so much for the lessons you were able to organise for our guides last month. They all had a fantastic time and I'm already hearing reports from parents about them cooking at home! Evelina and Mona were both so good with them and had endless patience - much more than they get from me!!"

From Kate Rowell, Girl Guides Organiser, Peebles

"All of the young people who took part in the workshops thoroughly enjoyed the YOU CAN COOK experience with Alex who very quickly established an excellent rapport with the young people - indeed we are sad to see her go! Over the course of the 5 week cooking workshops we have seen more and more of the young people show interest and participate. All of the young people learned new ways to cook familiar foods as well as trying experiments with new tastes. Alex also demonstrated that key recipes are transferable to lots of different dishes hence keeping costs down and proving to the young people that you can eat healthily on a budget! For some of the young people it has been about learning key life skills which will undoubtedly help them survive at home and for others the skills and knowledge gained now will prove beneficial if they progress in later years to further or higher education and have to live independently. The input from YOU CAN COOK has been an invaluable experience for the young people who attend Innerleithen Area Youth Group and it engaged participants from Peebles, Eddleston, Walkerburn, Cardrona as well as Innerleithen and Traquair. It has undoubtedly engaged young people and we would love to take part in any future workshops that YOU CAN COOK can offer."

From Susan C Moncur, Youth Worker, Innerleithen Youth Group

"We joined forces with YOU CAN COOK to deliver a series of healthy cookery workshops to help migrants integrate into the Scottish Borders. The focus was on seasonal Scottish produce, easy and quick recipes. The class was a mix of migrant workers and locals who had great fun and helped in the integration process."

From Lukasz Bogus, Development Worker, Eildon Housing Association

"Bosco and his team bring a variety of experience to a project, engaging participants and making the whole process not only a learning experience but also very importantly fun. Their ability to engage such a wide range of attendees was a key to the success of our course."

From Kath McCaffrey, Development Officer, Lamancha Hub

"Thank you very much for sending Douglas to work with our children they had a super time and his workshops got glowing reports from the children. He had a great rapport with the children and made the workshop interesting and good fun. Once again many thanks."

From Susan Reid, Head teacher - Ferryhill Primary School, Edinburgh

"Can you please pass on a big thank you to Alex for the fantastic demo she did for the pupils yesterday. They all were keen to get involved and really enjoyed not only the cooking but the tasting as well! The dish they helped prepare was well received and enjoyed by all. The kids were a great bunch and we have some great photos of them joining in, great fun and thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks again!!"

From Kimberley Hoddinott – Berwickshire Housing Association Limited

"The group really enjoyed the session, Connie was great and the food prepared was delicious."

From Gail Prince, Loanhead Miners Club, Midlothian

"We all had a fantastic day and everyone was raving about how tasty your food was and how much they enjoyed the session so thank you for making it so enjoyable and informative."

From Sian Langdon, Scottish Community Foundation, Edinburgh

"I thought I'd send a short e-mail to thank you very much for your talk. I must tell you that you went down a storm. I was told that you're the best speaker the club has had for ages...Good feedback, well deserved, and nobody dropped off to sleep. Thanks very much once again and all the best for the future to YOU CAN COOK."

From Gordon Sanders (Convenor), International Committee, Rotary Club of Penicuick

"We had an excellent interactive session with easy to do and adaptable recipes with great scope for all sorts of leftovers to be incorporated and gave people a lot of ideas and inspiration. The information that was given about nutrition, environmental care and safety was well balanced and the actual food cooked was DELICIOUS!!! Everybody who attended really enjoyed it and I would highly recommend this session to other groups."