It’s a groundbreaking new service. We created ShareThyme to pair older adults who love to cook with younger people who want to learn new recipes. So you can meet, cook and connect.
Right now, we’re in the process of testing ShareThyme and we'd love you to get involved.
It’s all about connecting the older and younger generations, to share cooking experiences, stories, and – of course – delicious dishes. There’s nothing quite like food to bring people together.
Do you love to cook? Are you 60+ and keen to meet new people? Would you be able to teach a younger person one of your favourite dishes?
If you’ve nodded yes to all these questions, then ShareThyme may be just the thing for you. Becoming a ShareThyme teacher is simple, free, and a whole lot of fun.
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide for students:
Choose a teacher
Pick a dish
Fill in the form to request a class
Wait for the teacher to accept your request
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide for teachers:
Get matched with a student when they request a class
Accept their request (if you want to)
Meet, and enjoy cooking together
How do I create my profile?
To get started, first you’ll need to create your teacher profile. This will include a short bio, in which you can introduce yourself to potential students. We’ll also ask you to name three of your favourite recipes, and to list their ingredients.
You can set up your profile here: https://sharethyme.co.uk/teacher-registration
How do I connect with students?
Once your profile’s live, students can start requesting cooking classes to learn your recipes. If you’re happy to meet the student you’ve been paired with, we’ll connect the two of you and share some suggestions for dates, times and places you could meet. Like a community centre near you, for example.
Where will we cook?
We’ve got links with brilliant community centres and other socially minded, neutral places. These locations have kindly offered up their kitchen spaces, along with other essential cooking equipment.
We’ve lined up kitchen spaces all over London. That means there’s likely to be one in your area so you don’t have to travel far. Another option would be to host the sessions in your own home if you’d like.
Who’ll take part in the cooking session?
It’ll be you – the teacher – and your ShareThyme student. If you’re happy to teach two or three students at the same time, we can arrange that too. Whatever you’re comfortable with, and whatever most inspires you.
Oh, and if you happen to be teaching your cooking class in a large community centre kitchen, it’s possible there’ll be other classes going on at the same time. A great opportunity to mingle with other teachers and students who share your passion for food. You might even pick up some new recipe ideas yourself...
We are Red Badger, a medium-sized digital consultancy based in Old Street, London. Day-to-day, we help large businesses get up to speed with all things digital by working closely with their teams.
We’re a friendly, diverse bunch of people who love to use our skills and talents to do good. As part of that, we devote a big chunk of our time to voluntary projects that are focused on creating positive social impact. One of them is ShareThyme. We’re thrilled to be creating the platform and collaborating with teachers and students to bring it to life.
No, not at all. A passion and enthusiasm for food and cooking are all you need. When we refer to ‘teachers’, we’re just talking about the older adults who give their time to teach others to cook. No ‘expert’ status necessary!
Likewise, when we say ‘students’, we’re talking about the younger people who are eager to learn your recipes. They may not necessarily be students, in the ‘studying’ sense. This project is all about bringing a diverse mix of people together.
Not a thing. ShareThyme is completely free for teachers and students. The only costs involved is buying the recipe ingredients, but your students will take care of that.
Once you agree on a dish, your students will find, buy and bring along everything that’s needed for your class. It’s their gift to you for sharing your time and expertise.
We put safety and security first. Before pairing teachers and students, we vet and verify every participant individually.
If you don’t feel comfortable with hosting a student in your home, we’ll help by finding a neutral place nearby where the two of you can meet and cook.
As a digital consultancy, we understand just how important data protection and privacy are. After all, it’s something we advise our clients on.
We take exceptional care of your personal data, closely following the government’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As part of that, we’ll only ever publish data that you’ve agreed you’re happy for us to publish.
Please take time to read our Ts&Cs and our Privacy Policy. And if you want to learn where we hold data for you, please email together@red-badger.com and we’ll be happy to help.
Thanks for asking. Right now, ShareThyme is a voluntary, social project. The more help we get, the more good we can do.
You can make a difference by sharing valuable feedback, spreading the word, and recommending potential cooking spaces. Please email together@red-badger.com for a chat.
ShareThyme aims to ensure all users (teachers and students) adhere to the following essential etiquette, both on and offline: no negative or offensive language, behaviour or sentiment to be tolerated directed towards any party across the platform or apparent across other public or private channels (e.g. social media). We want all users to feel they are experiencing a positive, welcoming and safe environment.
Users unable to meet these guidelines may experience their profiles being deactivated.
We cannot re-register any individual or reactivate any former profiles once deactivated. If you have made arrangements or had contact with any other users of the platform regarding recent or future arrangements that we are aware of, our team will neutrally-inform them that unfortunately you are no longer a user of the platform (you can feel assured that we will not go into any personal detail, and will make no statements about personal character or similar).
We’re always here to help, so please feel free to get in touch with any questions, concerns or thoughts.
Give us a call on 02035670551 or email us at together@red-badger.com.
