Competition Challenges Contestants to Live on £5 a Day
A teacher and radio presenter will be joining a celebrity chef to judge a cooking competition. Shemiza Rashid will be joining BBC’s Celebrity Masterchef and Saturday Kitchen chef Cyrus Todiwala to decide the winner of the Milton Keynes Health Cook Off competition.
The idea behind the concept will see participants create “a healthy main meal for a family with ingredients costing no more than £5.”
Mrs Rashid, who won the Public Service Award at the recent Asian Women of Achievement Awards last month, was chosen to judge the competition after organisers learnt of her ‘Live Below the Line’ challenge where she successfully challenged herself to spend £1 a day for five days on food and drink for her husband and six children.
Out of the numerous entrants from across the country six have made it through to the live cooking final, which are made up of authors of cook books, healthy lifestyle coaches, TV chefs, working professional mothers and food bloggers. These are Sophie Vaughan, Reyna al Ashaab, Helen Bedeau, Dorothy Woode, Shanaaz Ayub and Soraya Janmohamed.
Shemiza said, “Food poverty is not exclusive to only household of benefits but also those that work. Times of growing austerity have made us all think about cutting down on our food budgets in order to pay the bills and we seem to be opting more for convenience foods as a quick cheap food alternative.”
“During the ‘Live Below the Line Challenge’ I was delighted that for £5 I could purchase food that could last me a week, however it was a very unhealthy alternative. I realised after my challenge had ended I needed to go back and learn to be creative when learning to cook with the basics and learn to work with more fresh produce.”
Director and Founder of Milton Keynes Islamic Arts Heritage and Culture, Anouar Kassim, who has organised the event said, “The role of MKIAC has been crucial in tackling issues on health and wellbeing head on by being innovative, creative and benchmarking new standards such as Milton Keynes Cook – Off Competition. You could’ve wished from anyone than these 6 candidates who are charming, enthusiastic, creative women and want to make a difference in the communities. “
For more information, visit: http://www.mkiac.org/healthycook-offc.html
