MINEHEAD EYE have come up with an inventive solution to feed those in need during lockdown.

Eye Can Cook is a food parcel with a weekly recipe to help children and teenagers learn to cook simple and nutritious food.

The scheme is run by Minehead EYE alongside charity FareShare.

Juls Haddow, wellbeing outreach worker at Minehead EYE, came up with the idea.

“As a youth service provider, Minehead EYE will always look at issues from the child’s perspective," he said.

"We know that most children are spending long periods on tech right now delivering their home schoolwork, and that children have lost access to many of their usual activities.

"At the same time, keeping families fed during lockdown is a pressing concern for local charities. Because we work closely with children and FareShare, we were well placed to put two and two together and come up with the Food Bag idea.”

The scheme takes bulk food donations and adds a few selected shop bought ingredients, alongside a simple recipe to match the food availability.

“The bag includes all the main ingredients to put a family meal together, with a recipe so easy, that even very young children can assemble and cook it with a little supervision," Mr Haddow added.

"The idea is to make family mealtimes an enjoyable learning experience, one that everyone can participate in and which keeps people nourished at the same time.

"We have encouraged people to send us pictures of their prepared meal and give us feedback. It’s going down a treat!”

Eye Can Cook is supported by the Lottery Covid Response Fund and the West Somerset Opportunity Area, and is available by direct collection from the Minehead EYE hub or distributed with the help of the Home-Start volunteer network.

The scheme is funded to run throughout the lockdown period.

Minehead EYE has been working with both the West Somerset Opportunity Area and Fareshare for a couple of years, providing food for children during the school holidays.