An award winning catering service has been teaching the city’s youngsters and their families that cooking healthy food can be easy, tasty and affordable.
Over the last 18 months Manchester Fayre, the city council’s catering service that prepares around 26,000 schools meals a day, has also run fun interactive cooking clubs at primary schools across the city.
The sessions are aimed at 7-11 year olds and have been attended so far by more than 350 children from 30 different schools.
They are designed to inspire pupils to become interested and passionate about nutritious foods and to support them in making healthier food choices, as well as giving them the kind of cooking skills that will set them up for life.
Pupils attending the classes have also helped develop a recipe book filled with some of the recipes they've tried out in the cooking club. Cooking Club favourites includes wholesome and tasty recipes for cereal bars, tuna fishcakes, cheese and vegetable scones, fruity cheesecakes, and banana pops.
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The easy-to-follow recipes are very much aimed at getting children and families to cook together as a way of trying to encourage healthier eating habits for the whole family.
The success of the cooking clubs has seen Manchester Fayre awarded with the Lead Association for Catering in Education’s Nan Berger Memorial Award in recognition of the work by their Nutrition team to improve the health of children in Manchester.
One of the latest schools to take part in the cooking clubs is Sacred Heart RC Primary School in Baguley, where the classes have proved really popular with pupils who take great pride in their newly acquired cooking skills.
City Council nutritionist Louise McErlain, who helped set up the cooking club, says the clubs have been a great success.
She said: “The cooking clubs are a great way to inspire children and families to cook together, creating tasty, healthy, and affordable recipes. They've have been a great success with schools.
"As well as being good fun the clubs help children to develop a passion for food and cooking and to learn more about healthy eating.
"Children are also taking their new-found skills home with them and sharing them with their families - all of which helps us to get the all-important messages out to families about nutrition and the importance of eating healthily."
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