Minister for Children and Families, Sarah Teather, swapped the dispatch box for the chopping board on a visit to Let's Get Cooking today.
She joined children at nearby St Robert Southwell Catholic Primary school for their annual ‘make, take home and share’ cooking day – run by their successful Let’s Get Cooking club.
Every single child at the school cooked a healthy dish to take home and share with their family and friends, as part of Let’s Get Cooking’s activities to help children and families improve their diets by learning to cook.
Sarah Teather said: “Learning how to cook affordable, healthy food from scratch is an important part of the school experience for children, helping them grow up with the skills they need to stay healthy and feed themselves well.
“Through the work of Let’s Get Cooking, children, their families and the communities around schools are all getting the chance to improve their cooking skills, and this has been a wonderful chance to see that in action.”
Our Chairman, Rob Rees, said: “We’re delighted that the Minister came to see Let’s Get Cooking in action. Without fancy equipment or expensive ingredients, St Robert Southwell is just one example of a school that is helping children learn about what it means to eat healthily through Let’s Get Cooking.
“Nationally, our research has shown that more than half of Let’s Get Cooking club members eat a healthier diet after learning to cook, so the children were keen to show the Minister what they can do!”
Learning to cook healthy family meals is proving to be an important way to encourage people to eat a healthier diet. Research for Let’s Get Cooking has shown that over half of club members (58%) said they were eating more healthily after their involvement with the programme, while 90% reported that they had used their new cooking skills at home.
Now in the fourth year of a £20 million, five-year programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund, we have set up more than 4,000 school-based Let’s Get Cooking clubs in every local authority across England . They have already reached more than 1 million people with their activities and now make up the largest network of its kind in the country.
Mainly held outside school hours, Let’s Get Cooking clubs give children and non-cooking parents of all ages the skills and confidence to cook nutritious and tasty meals from scratch. The network of clubs involves the wider community and encourages children and young people to cook at home and eat a healthy balanced diet.
