Easton community oven plan to help with rising energy bills

Coexist Community Kitchen director Claudia Poligioni said they wanted to create a space for people to come together around food

A cookery school is hoping to launch a community oven to help people save money on their energy bills.

Coexist Community Kitchen (CCK) wants to set up the project to give people in Easton, Bristol, a place to meet, share food and ideas, and learn new skills.

It invited residents to an open day on Saturday to share their plans and allow people give their views.

"We wanted to create a space for the community to come together around food," said director Claudia Poligioni.

An open day was held to allow residents to share their views on the community oven plans

CCK is a non-profit cookery school which runs outreach cooking classes with drug and alcohol services, refugee and asylum seeker groups and mental health organisations.

It plans to use feedback gathered at its open day to launch a fundraiser to help cover the costs of a new oven, ingredients and running costs.

Ms Poligioni said they hoped the community oven could help people cope with rising costs.

"We believe a shared oven could help ease some of the ongoing issues people are experiencing," she said.

"Issues like social isolation and societal marginalisation, which are only getting worse due to increasingly cold temperatures, high energy costs and the rising cost of food."

Coexist Community Kitchen works with drug and alcohol services and asylum seekers in Bristol

Ms Poligioni said the group wanted residents to "connect, feel at home, build new friendships and skills".

"This is all about bringing people together to hear what they would like from a community oven," she said.

"We would also like to offer people kit to make their own dough at home and bring it here to be baked to use it to its maximum capacity."

Volunteer Andy Rankin said there was a very strong feeling of community in the area

CCK volunteer, Andy Rankin, said a community oven would help people to learn baking and cooking skills.

"The community vibe is a big part of why I am here every week. It's really good to be helping people in this area," he said.

"Cooking is something some people don't get to learn when growing up.

"It's brilliant what they're doing here, it take a lot of work so it's really impressive."