Want to do your bit to help the planet? Feel like your cooking skills could do with some improvement? There’s an opportunity to do both at some new sustainable cooking classes popping up across London… and the best part – they’re free!

Run by the Small Change, Big Difference campaign, a new series of 30 classes are offering Londoners the chance to expand their cooking skills. Along with whipping up some gastro delights, the classes will also aim to reduce the estimated 910,000 tonnes of food wasted by the capital’s residents every year. You can find inspiration on how to create quick and easy recipes using whatever is lingering in your fridge or cupboards. Expert chefs will showcase their passion for food and teach you how you can improve your health and protect the planet by choosing the right ingredients.

The first workshops have launched already with weekly ‘Waste-FREE Lunch’ every Thursdays (in July) at Mercato Metropolitano in Borough. Attendees can learn how to make a healthy, sustainable packed lunch – before eating it! – in a lunchtime session. There will also be classes on Wednesday evenings through the month at venues in Brixton, Stoke Newington, Battersea and Oxford Circus.

The remaining July workshops include:

– Sunday 21 July : Waste-FREE cookery class at Newburgh Street, Soho. (10.30am-11.15am)

– Wednesday 24 July : Cookery School at Little Portland Street, Oxford Circus (6.30pm-9pm)

– Thursday 25 July : ‘Waste-FREE lunch’ at Mercato Metropolitano, Elephant and Castle (12.45pm-1.40pm).

You book a space on one of the classes through a Eventbrite, which will require a fully-refundable £10 deposit to guarantee your spot. The classes are running from now until October 2019.

• Small Change, Big Difference cookery workshops are taking place from now until October 2019 on selected dates. Places are free, but a £10 returnable deposit is required to secure your place (You will be refunded after attending the class, however this is not refunded in the event of a no-show, with the money donated to charity). Book your place (up to 2 weeks in advance) via Eventbrite or find more information on the Small Change, Big Difference website.

For a guide to what’s on in London in February, click here.

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