Retired chef takes on food insecurity

FERGUS – Retired chef Bob Bignell has taken a stand against food insecurity with his flyer-priced meal plans to help local households manage grocery costs and reduce food waste.

For the past four weeks, Bignell has published a free weekly family meal plan that covers a week of meals for two adults and two youth under 16. 

Bignell, with the help of his AI assistant Daisy, puts these meals together using ingredients from local stores such as Walmart, Giant Tiger, Zehrs and Freshco and uses a budget of under $150 or $175 per week. 

“It’s not necessarily the best cost,” said Bignell. “It’s the best meal factors that come together.”

New this week, Bignell will also be publishing an edition for seniors and singles.

“This week we’re starting a new thing because I had quite a few people saying that seniors and singles are being left out on this,” said Bignell.  

“So as of Thursday’s publishing, we’ll be doing a singles [and] seniors menu for the seven days. Same thing: breakfast, lunch, dinner, all costs broken down.”

Each publication goes live on Thursdays and is posted to Bignell’s website. Each features a grocery list with exact costs, recipes for each meal throughout the week, a schedule of what to cook when and a section with helpful cooking tips and tricks. 

“And as long as I’m doing it, it will be completely free,” said Bignell. 

Asked why his initiative is important, Bignell said “money is tight” so making the most of it is vital.

“Cooking a meal and stretching that – that’s a skill that we don’t do anymore,” he said. “When you cook a meal, you got to plan for your leftovers.”

Bignell says he hopes to work with the Centre Wellington Food Bank at some point in the future as he believes he can curate meals for food bank clients.

 “They got quite a bit of stuff in there that could feed people a long time if they cook right,” said Bignell.

Those looking to access the weekly family, seniors and singles meal plans can do so by visiting Bobsrecipes.com. Bignell also publishes recipes for baked goods on his Facebook page.