Cooking from Scratch
Food Standards Agency Grant Winner
Grace Davies talks about "Cooking From Scratch": a series of practical cooking courses aimed at teenagers and young parents in a disadvantaged area of Bristol to teach the 'balance of good health'.
Aims and Objectives
The first aim was to actually get good numbers of participants from these hard to reach targeted groups. Then to:
- Encourage and teach these teenagers/young parents to prepare and cook balanced, simple, interesting and affordable meals for themselves at home.
- Help them to enjoy cooking, gain confidence, and develop awareness of food groups, eating a balanced diet, food labelling and food hygiene.
- Provide them with well presented, colourful, appropriate recipes for them to use at home and supportive resources on healthy eating.
Expected outcomes were to have participants enthused about cooking, loving the course, feeling more confident about doing it for themselves, and then actually going away and doing it, having gained skills and knowledge on the way.
Partners
Initial 'working group' set up between Bristol City Council Food Safety Team, and Bristol Primary Care Trust. We then employed a food consultant/cooking tutor to develop the project.
Knowle West Health Association donated the use of their community training kitchen and gave staff support.
Methodology
There were 10 'taster' sessions run over a period of 3 months, aimed at capturing the interest of those involved, and getting them enthused about cooking for themselves. Sessions were 2-2.5 hours and themed (eg italian & pizza cooking; simple curries; burgers, soups and smoothies; christmas cookery).
Average of 6 participants at a time, from a range of youth clubs, mother and toddler groups, schools, and Pupil referral Units. 49 participants in total. Each session 3 or 4 different recipes were used, giving a range of dishes to prepare and cook between the group.
Everyone tried the dishes at the end and then took some home to eat. We spent some of each session chatting about what they ate, what they knew about food groups and a balanced diet, and top tips about food hygiene. There was also a tutor led session, with input from Environemntal Health Officer and an assistant. A creche was provided for toddlers and babies during the young parents sessions.
After the tasters, participants were encouraged to sign up to longer (5 week) courses running Jan-March '07. On these courses, there was more opportunity to work on developing skills, knowledge and confidence. Each week the cooking and activities were based on a different food group. Total 18 participants.
The project ended with an additional visit to a local farm, with planting of their own herbs and vegetable seeds. A celebratory and thank-you lunch was cooked by a selection of the participants for all the partners involved in the project. Each participant on the longer courses received a certificate.
Promotion
We had posters and leaflets to circulate in health centre, youth clubs, walk-in centre, via health visitors, local clubs & charities, BUT the most effective recruiting was done by contacting youth organisations, schools, parent toddler groups, SureStart, DIRECTLY and chatting on the phone or visiting them.
Individuals and groups were then given an application form and further details and signed up to particular course dates. Participants (individuals & groups) were then phoned the day before to remind them.
Resources
A grant of £8k from FSA was used to pay for the basic running costs of the project (tutor costs, food, printing & stationery, creche, transport to farm, etc, although we overspent by £1.5k.
Bristol City Council and the Bristol Primary Care Trust contributed a member of staff each to work part-time on the project. Donations in kind from KWHA - free use of a training kitchen.
Evaluation
Simple evaluation/feedback forms were used on the taster courses to get an indication of enjoyment, increase in confidence, further interest, best bit, etc.
The longer courses had a start and end evaluation, based on finding out the level of knowledge, experience, confidence before the course and comparing it to afterwards. Feedback was also obtained by discussion with participants and assessment by the cooking tutor.
Lessons Learned
Sometimes there was too much to fit into a session - future sessions will be longer (2.5 hours for 6 weeks). A pre-session discussion with groups would help to establish levels of knowledge and experience, rather than using a written evaluation, which many were not comfortable with.
There were too many visits from the media, who took alot of interest in what we were doing. These need to be limited as it interrupts a session. Telephoning the participants beforehand was started after the first taster, when only 2 turned up!
Future Developments
The project was extremely successful, with other communities making requests for help in starting up similar projects. A further grant from the FSA is enabling us to do a similar project in another area of Bristol starting this summer/autumn.
Contact Details
Contact Name: Grace Davies
Job Title: Senior EHO and project leader
Phone: 0117 9223409
Email: grace.davies@bristol.gov.uk
Organisation: Bristol City Council
Address: Public Health Services Brunel House St.Georges Road Bristol BS1 5UY
Other Resources: