Balham-based Certitude, a charity which supports people with mental health support needs and learning disabilities in London, has partnered up with organic food company, Abel & Cole, to produce a Christmas video entitled Food for Thought.

The film kicks off a Certitude campaign to raise money to finance Food for Thought cookery clubs across London for people with learning disabilities to come together and cook in an environment where they feel comfortable to talk about mental health issues.

Certitude Community Fundraiser, Sam Mason says:

“We have found that cooking from scratch in a relaxed setting provides an excellent opportunity to talk about mental health issues. Our recent Food for Thought pilot attendees told us they had experienced better overall wellbeing and felt more able to cope with difficult emotions independently. Because of this success we would like to be able to support more people with learning disabilities to explore their mental health and build their resilience, all while learning how to cook delicious, healthy meals.”

The film features Ashley, who is supported by Certitude in Ealing, making mince pies with his mum and Certitude staff. It demonstrates how cooking together provides the perfect opportunity to chat without feeling under pressure to talk.

With the money raised from this Christmas campaign, Certitude would like to offer Food for Thought sessions to more people in London. The cookery workshops would be overseen by trained support workers and qualified therapists and at the end of each course, every participant would be given a pack of 10 healthy new recipes and a list of tailored techniques to help safeguard their mental health.

If you would like to support Certitude’s Food for Thought programme and support the mental health of people like Ashley, you can donate on their Just Giving page.

You can find out more about Certitude on their website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.