Tom’s Story

Food can have a massive effect on the way I think, and how productive I can be.

At the end of the day, food is fuel, and I’ve found in the past that when I’m running on good fuel, I’m so much more motivated to get up and do things, and so much more inspired with creative ideas for different things I want to work on. 

Bristol as a whole is known for its food and is known for its creativity, and to keep its good reputation in times like the ones we face now with rising food costs, rising bills and rising rent, we really need to focus on making sure the meals we eat are to a good standard, something a lot of us are struggling with right now! 

If I eat a lower quality meal, I notice that in my energy levels, where I’ll feel foggy and sluggish afterwards. I think it’s really important that good quality meals are accessible for anyone, regardless of their economic situation, as in order to better the times we have at hand we first need to have the energy to do so!

I love how food can bring a community together and right now I think communities as a whole have become a bit fragmented due to all these different stresses, so what better way to bring people back together and make them feel like they actually matter, than giving them real food?

It’s such a humanistic approach I think to solve a multitude of problems that I think often leave people not really feeling valued as one. 

Not having access to fresh food, especially nice fruit and veg, as it is so expensive, really demotivates me with cooking. I often eat food that is easy to make such as ready made pizza or frozen meals, or will whip up something quickly like a wrap or sandwich. The spectrum of different meals that I eat could definitely be a lot broader, I feel limited in the ingredients I intake- I’ll typically have a lot of cucumber or lettuce, for example, in the fresh meals I make, like wraps. I do like these meals, and I like lettuce and cucumber, but also it does just get quite monotonous having like my main ‘greens’ intake just be these two things. 

Sometimes I’ll cook pasta, (my go to would probably be pesto pasta as it’s easy and I love pesto!!!) but again I just feel quite limited in what I can put in said pasta, often I’ll just put in a load of cheese, some ham or chorizo, and if I have any lying around maybe some sliced peppers. 

I want to be able to experiment more with different cooking techniques, and broaden my know how on different recipes, and recipes that you eat, then feel like ‘cleansed’? I guess?

I like healthy and attractive meals, ones that make you excited to cook them as well as eat them because it feels worth it!

It would be nice to get a sustainable selection of ingredients that can be used in a number of different dishes as I work through the recipes, so that my fresh produce that I have stocked up to use- actually gets used, instead of going mouldy!