In the foreground, two young girls tend to a garden, while the background reveals a rustic outdoor classroom filled with students under a thatched roof.

This is Waste to Wonder&rsquo;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&rsquo;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 Conor Spacey and in partnership with the Global Orphan Empowerment Academy. They&rsquo;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.

Hello <span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip" fr-original-style="" style="color: rgb(42, 42, 196); overflow-wrap: anywhere; user-select: none; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255); border-radius: 4px; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 8px; font-size: 11px; display: inline-block; box-sizing: inherit;">First name, Thank you so much for your incredibly generous donation to our Sustainability Cookery School in The Gambia. 💚 Your support genuinely means so much to us and will help us get one step closer to completing the school and opening its doors to young people in the community. This project is about so much more than building a cookery school. It&rsquo;s about creating opportunities for young people to learn practical skills, access training and build sustainable livelihoods for the future. We&rsquo;re incredibly grateful that you&rsquo;ve chosen to be part of it. Thank you for helping us turn this vision into something very real. 🌍 Paula Gibsonpaula.gibson@wastetowonder.com

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 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.

Waste to Wonder Trust

The Sustainability Cookery School

Choose an amount:

£