Sowing seeds of hope
The Waste to Wonder Sustainability Cookery School
This is Waste to Wonder’s boldest step yet: The Sustainability Cookery School, a purpose-built training centre rising in The Gambia. Not a food handout — a place where young people learn to grow, cook, and build a livelihood from what the land provides.
It builds on the legacy of our School in a Box programme, which has already equipped more than 1,700 schools in 50 countries — and carries that same spirit of transformation into food, farming, and futures.
29% of The Gambia’s population is food insecure. When crops fail, incomes disappear. When incomes disappear, children go hungry and communities grow more vulnerable. The Cookery School breaks that cycle — training a generation to grow, cook, and sell their way into stable work, for generations to come.
Students will graduate with real skills in sustainable cooking, agriculture, hospitality, and entrepreneurship — working alongside award-winning chef and Culinary Director of Food Space Ireland, Conor Spacey and in partnership with the Global Orphan Empowerment Academy. They’ll leave not just employable, but with the confidence, dignity, and resilience to lift themselves — and their communities — out of poverty.
This is a living embodiment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: zero hunger, decent work, responsible consumption, and climate action, built on a circular economy where nothing — food, land, or opportunity — goes to waste.
The building is just the vehicle. The real product is transformed lives.
Where we are right now
The land is bought. The boundary wall is built. The project has already moved from vision to reality — and what stands between here and opening day is the rest of the build.
We’re raising £100,000 to build and run the school — and we’ve now raised approx. £75,000.
Every donation now moves us closer to opening the doors.
Plates with Purpose — thank you
Thursday 3 September — Urban Farmer, Fleet Street, London
What an evening. Guests joined us at Urban Farmer on Fleet Street for a night of great food in support of the Cookery School — and together we raised £5,000 towards opening our doors in The Gambia.
Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket, bid, donated, or simply showed up on the night. Every plate served that evening is one step closer to a finished school.
Missed it, or want to keep the momentum going? You can still help us close the gap:
Up next: Plates with Purpose, Ireland
Our chef partner Conor Spacey is bringing Plates with Purpose home. Conor is Irish, and on Thursday 12 November he’ll be hosting the next Plates with Purpose fundraising dinner in his home country of Ireland — cooking once again to help get the Cookery School’s doors open.
Full details — venue, tickets, and menu — are still being finalised, so watch this space.
A single school. A whole system of opportunity.
Whether it’s a donation, a seat at a future dinner, a corporate partnership, or simply spreading the word — every bit of support moves us closer to opening day.