Hundreds of lives have been changed in Levenshulme - and it all started with a dumpling

It started with a dumpling and became so much more. For the last seven years, the humble parcel-shaped delicacy has been at the core of Heart & Parcel - a social enterprise based out of south Manchester, which uses food as a medium to bring women from ethnic minority communities around Manchester together to practice and develop their English language skills.

The dumpling is, after all, universal. Every culture has their own version, whether it's momos typically found in northern Indian, Tibetan and Nepali cuisine; pierogi, Polish dumplings made using unleavened dough; or kubbeh, an Iraqi-Jewish variation filled with bulgar, minced onions and ground meat, they’re a staple of many cuisines across the world.

As Heart & Parcel co-founder Clare Courtney explains, they’re also a metaphor. “It symbolises the hidden skills and knowledge of those people who are coming into the country, but not being recognised for those attributes.

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“The way you fold dumplings and cook them, it’s very much a shared learning process, where we come together to chat, cook, and build confidence.”

Founded in 2015 by Clare and Karolina Koścień, Heart & Parcel’s English and cooking classes were originally intended to fill the gap in ESOL classes provided in the UK, which cannot always be accessed by those who need them most due to restrictive eligibility requirements. Since then they’ve evolved significantly, with pupils now taking the reins and passing on their own recipes and experiences.

Unlike typical English learning classes, there is no pressure to pass tests and perform, and rather than learn by rote, the language is woven into the