Dr Kingsley Purdam and older people from the Tackling Food Poverty research project recently held an interactive cooking demonstration at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival to celebrate International Older People’s Day. The event, which took place on 30 September, involved older people, Dr Purdam and local cookery school ‘Cracking Good Food’, with the aim of sharing cooking skills and highlighting the risks of under-nutrition in older age. The food was also supplied by Fareshare Greater Manchester.

The Tackling Food Poverty project is led by Dr Purdam, lecturer in social statistics, which grew out of a seedcorn project with the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA). The research team helped develop an under-nutrition risk tool currently being piloted in East Manchester.

Dr Purdam said: “Bringing older people together to talk about their circumstances and to share their favourite recipes can have a really positive impact on their wellbeing. Many older people live on their own and may not be motivated to eat or get the help they need, with under nutrition leading to poorer health outcomes.”