Booths Partner with Foodie Book Club

Written on November 16th, 2020

We have recently had the absolute pleasure of connecting with Lee (pictured), founder of Foodie Book Club. We’re delighted to be able to support an initiative that brings together food, literature and most importantly, people. If you’re intrigued to hear more about exactly what Foodie Book Club is, Lee has written a guest blog for us to tell you all about it in her own words:

It’s a time of great excitement for me and all of the Foodie Book Club groups. Being in partnership with Booths is a dream come true.

If you’re reading this, you already know how great Booths’ products are.

A chain of supermarkets that takes pride in its products, supports its suppliers, prides itself in the people who work there and now is a partner and supporter of Foodie Book Club; Booths deserves all the hype especially at times like this.

Let me tell you about Foodie Book Club and why having Booths behind us makes me so excited for our groups and me.

Once upon a time, just at the beginning of lockdown, (you remember those days?!) I had an idea.

Ok, let’s be honest here, it was my idea but it didn’t come out of the blue.

We all have many work lives in our history, and I’m no exception. One of the most rewarding was as counsellor to adults and children, and at the beginning of lockdown restrictions some of my past clients reached out to me to ask for a little emotional support.

One of the ideas I had was to connect some of the people with others via a book club, and because my work is as a recipe developer with a passion for working with independent businesses, I had to include some form of cooking. Voila, Foodie Book Club was born.

How does it work? Virtually of course right now, but being virtual doesn’t cut down on the fun, the personal connections with others in the Foodie Book Club groups or sharing food and recipes.

Foodie Book Club is an easy thing to start with so many benefits – it’s not just about reading books.

Here’s how…

Once you’ve got your group members together, register it on our website telling me the group leader’s name, your group’s name (I always have fun reading these – keep them clean though), how many are in your group and the group leader’s address.

When I have these details, I’ll send you a welcome gift of Foodie Book Club book marks for each of your group participants, and email you a couple of helpful Foodie Book Club packs to get you on your way. That’s when all the fun starts

I love a bit of Twitter, don’t you? Even if you’re not into the tweety social media app, watch out for our Twitter Hour, #foodiebookclubhour, every Wednesday 6-7pm.

This is an hour of fun and chat for everyone, not just Foodie Book Club Groups. Each week we have a business sponsor the hour giving us a week’s worth of discounts which we email straight to our Foodie Book Club group leaders who pass them straight on to group members.

It’s a fabulous way to help support businesses right now and something Foodie Book Club is very proud to be doing. It’s also a great way to get discounts on some great products from independent businesses you may not have had access to before.

You’ll find a list of upcoming reads ready for you to browse on the Foodie Book Club pages. Each book is fiction and has an ingredient in the title. Full disclosure here, sometimes the ingredients are inside the book or barely there, but it’s all about the fun.

Monthly, Foodie Book Club groups read the books and at the end of each month they use the ingredient (as much or as little as they like) in a potluck sharing dish. If lockdown restrictions weren’t in place, groups would meet up to chat about the book and share the food. Not so right now.

Right now, groups are using Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp and other ways of meeting, chatting and “showing” their food to everyone.

These and our Facebook page, Twitter etc., are some of the ways that groups and individual members are connecting throughout the month too. Reaching out to another person and knowing that someone is there is a powerful thing to do right now, and being in a Foodie Book Club group is the perfect way to connect with like-minded people.

All this and there is still more. Yup, that’s what I said.

Being in a Foodie Book Club group doesn’t mean that you have to have chef-like cooking skills, the very opposite is true.

Sometimes the idea of cooking can be a scary one, especially if you’re sharing your dishes. No need to feel that with Foodie Book Club. Part of the fun is sharing recipes from other group members throughout the month in all the ways I’ve already mentioned, and also on our contributor recipe page. If you have a great recipe you’d like others to try, or are looking for inspiration for yourself, drop in on this page and you’re sure to find others who are looking too.

That’s such a lot of great reasons to start your own Foodie Book Club, but still that’s not everything that’s going on.

Chefs, chefs and more chefs are supporting Foodie Book Club too. MasterChef winners, Great British Bake Off winners, Great British Menu chefs and chefs from everywhere and every level are giving us monthly recipes for Foodie Book Club.

Sometimes these recipes are challenging and sometimes not so much, whichever it is, you’ll find those on the website too along with a very bad book review from me. I never said I was a professional book reviewer, only that I could cook!

Now, Foodie Book Club is in partnership with Booths.

It’s an exciting time for both of us because I know things you don’t know yet!

I have a few questions for you.

Do you like to read?
Do you like food or cooking?
Do you want to connect with like-minded people?
Do you want to support independent businesses and receive discount codes?
Do you want to have some amazing chefs give you recipes each month?

If yes, Foodie Book Club is for you.

Go along to our website and find out how easy it is to start your group, get your group together and join in with the fun.

Lockdown restrictions or not, it’s time to live happily ever after, or at least put a smile on your face with Foodie Book Club in partnership with Booths.

Lee

Click here to visit the website

Join in on social media:

Twitter: @book_foodie
Facebook: Lee & The Sweet Life
Instagram: @foodie_book_club_