Community Dialysis Cookbook: Helping Hands
People with kidney disease have a very restricted diet. They need to avoid salt, potassium and phosphate which are found in numerous everyday ingredients – including many fruits and vegetables – making it difficult to prepare flavoursome meals. People from global majority groups are at greater risk of developing chronic kidney disease, and yet there are no culturally diverse renal cookery books available. Serving dialysis patients from a great variety of ethnic backgrounds, Barts Health NHS Trust have learned that many communities have developed adaptations to their own cuisine, in line with the requirements of their restricted diet.
Vital Arts, in collaboration with Central Saint Martins and Kidney Care UK, are working with patients to develop a Community Dialysis Cookery Book that will enable this varied community to share their dispersed culinary knowledge with each other and the broader renal patient community.
This book proposal emerges from a collaborative research project about art and design interventions for the Haemodialysis Unit at The Royal London Hospital, funded by Creativeworks London, a subsidiary fund of the Arts and Humanities research Council (AHRC). One of the outcomes from this phase was a set of cards with recipes by patients from diverse backgrounds. The cards were enthusiastically received by patients, staff and various renal health advocacy groups, indicating that such a publication is both necessary and desirable.
Recipes cards created in collaboration with Kerstin Rodgers aka Ms Marmite Lover
Video by Amy Haigh and Jacob Hobbs
In 2017, after the success of this pilot, Vital Arts showcased the project as part of their Tate Exchange programme and received nearly 2000 visitors over two days. The event featured collaborations with Central Saint Martins design students who created a stop frame video to support the promotion of the recipe cards.
Video by Daniela Barbeira, Eva Afifah Rd and Savannah Bader
Following Tate Exchange, the project received funding from Kidney Care UK to produce a full cookbook with recipes gathered from patients. Recipe writer Helen Graves and Ashwini Menon, a renal dietitian, interviewed patients across Barts Health NHS Trust about their favourite foods and collected recipes for the cookbook. To ensure that the cookbook takes a holistic approach to patients’ needs, Nicola Thomas, Professor of Kidney Care at London South Bank University conducted interviews exploring the role that the renal diet plays in patients’ social and cultural lives.
A second presentation at Tate Exchange saw three groups of students test potential designs for the cookbook, one group even going as far as to follow the renal diet themselves in preparation for the project. The winning design by Benya Singusaha, Cancan Huang, Etty Flynn & Romina Krosnyak, ‘Helping Hands’, celebrates the idea of sharing culinary knowledge, hints and tips amongst the renal community.
Interactive display at Tate Exchange for the ‘Helping Hands’ project.
The project has been closely developed with haemodialysis patients at Barts Health Trust but we hope that the benefits to users of the book extends to the broader renal community and their families, as well as specialist renal dietitians and medical professionals nationwide.
Video by Andrea Li, Elie Fourcroy, Chika Kusumahadi and Michelle Lim
Funders and partners
