Cooking up a Treat in Croydon's Nurseries
Abi Herbert talks about Croydon’s campaign, aptly named ‘Cooking up a treat in Croydon’s Nurseries’, to educate the cooks and management in local nurseries help them provide nutritious and wholesome meals for children in their care now and in the future .
The project provided information and practical techniques for cooks and managers to help them develop new skills on how to follow recipies, and make food, low in saturated fats, sugar, salt. (In accordance with government guidelines on child nutrition.) And also how to include more fruit and vegetables in their weekly menus,
Aims and Objectives
Aims
- To increase the skills amongst nursery food providers to improve the nutritional content of the meals.
- To empower the nursery cooks to take responsibility for the children’s diet through paying particular attention to reducing intake of fat (particularly saturated fat), salt and sugar and encourage increased consumption of fruit and vegetables as well as starchy foods and whole grain cereals.
Objectives
The objective was to play a part in the Food Standards Agency’s objective to promote healthy eating in children. It has been well publicised that poor diets in children can have a range of adverse health consequences and there is a growing problem of childhood obesity. By changing eating patterns such as the percentage of food groups eaten in the nurseries we will try to go some way to contribute to the Agency’s targets.
Partners
Croydon Environmental Health
Croydon Early Years Team
Croydon PCT - Community dieticians
Methodology
Using the 2004 Mortality statistics for Croydon the project targeted nurseries in the statistically worst areas. 15 nuseries were invited to the training. Those not participating were given course information and were directed to the dedicated website.
Posters were erected to show the nurseries were taking part in the training and to advertise the ‘parent’ information pack.
The project was delivered in four parts:
1) Presentations
Using lessons plans, the cooking sessions and presentations were specially designed for the nursery managers and cooks, including
- Eating for under fives, the food groups, what is a balanced diet
- Salt and sugars levels including reading labels
- Fats good for under fives, weaning
- Five a day
- Party foods. The presentations were interactive and encouraged the nursery staff to share their own experiences and practices.
2) Cooking demonstrations and practicals
A purpose built teaching kitchen was used. Over the 5 sessions 15 recipes (with useful catering tips) were demonstrated by the Chef. In groups, the attendees cooked the recipes. Participants also learnt interesting ways to present foods to children. Video footage of recipes demonstrations can be downloaded from Croydon on-line
3) Sampling
Eurofins laboratory was used, to analyse a weeks food from 4 nurseries (lunch, tea and snacks) for energy, protein, carbohydrates, fats, sugars, sodium, calcium, iron and vitamin C, to show the nutritional content of the food given to the children.
4) Menu analysis
The project analysed nurseries menus using the CHOMP computer programme (developed by the Caroline Walker Trust). The ingredients of a weeks food was analysed for energy levels, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, iron, calcium and non-milk extrinsic sugars, and compared to the nutritional guidelines for schoos. An explanation and guidance on suggested improvements to the menus was given.
5) Parent packs
The project produced flyers and posters to promote the project, with a parent information pack put together to encourage them to implement the recipes at home.
Promotion
During food safety audits officers promoted the project and encouraged the identified nurseries to take part. Croydon Early Years Team and Sure Start were provided with flyers and contact details for information on the project.
The project was publicised in:
- Press releases to the local radio station and papers.
- Croydon Food News - sent to all food businesses within Croydon.
- The Croydon nursery nutrition website. As of January 2008) this received 10058 hits. People with enquiries regarding the project were directed to the website.
- The Croydon Mayor publicised the project through her Science Fair.
- The project team presented a stand featuring the Nursery Nutrition project at the annual science talks conducted by the Mayor and friends. Over 80 people attended.
Resources
A £10,000 grant awarded to the Food Safety Team by the Food Standards Agency provided a perfect opportunity to develop a training programme. A total of £7,000 was used for this project.
Two EHOs were used to plan the project, three dieticians were used to present, analyse menus and complete 1-2-1 visits within the nurseries. A professional chef was employed for the cookery demonstrations.
The project hired the local catering college kitchens for the project – they were well equipment for teaching and had multiple cooking stations for the nursery cooks and manager to have a go too. Eurofins food analysis and hire of the venue used a large proportion of the funds.
Evaluation
Evaluation was undertaken 4 ways:
1. Answers to the questionnaires taken before and after the course showed they could now determine good and bad fats, understand the amount of sugars and salts for children, and they had learnt how to present food in a more appealing manner.
2. Visits to the nurseries with 1-2-1 interviews showed the use of some of the cooking methods and menus learnt on the course.
3. Course feedback forms were completed and showed overall the course as a success. Throughout the course those attending were very positive about what they learnt and were impressed with the way the course was organised and conducted.
4. Assessment of the project one year on by Community dietician showed that the project had been beneficial, with some elements being put into practice e.g. The protein content of vegetarian meals and the provision of vegetables with main meals had improved. Promotion of alternative cooking methods such as grilling and poaching.
However, high fat, sugar and salt foods still appear to be an issue in 2 nurseries; Whilst nurseries have adopted the provision of tap water members of staff spoken to were not aware of the disadvantages of juice drinks; The usage of the recipe book compiled in the original project is very limited. The nurseries shopping habits also changed, with the use of alternative foods (e.g. liver and no ‘value’ ready meals).
Lessons Learned
The implementation of this project was labour intensive and the organisation of each session time consuming - each session needed different cooking equipment and ingredients. On the first session, the Chef demonstrated 4 recipes – this was too onerous. This was rectified for the following sessions and fewer recipes were demonstrated.
Attendance dropped at the third and fourth sessions. In hindsight we would charge people to attend the training, (if people pay for something they will be more likely to attend).
Training covered 4 weeks of Ramadan and two people attending were unable taste food. In the future we would arrange the session to prevent such clashes, as tasting was a significant part of the project - as it was important for participant to be able to pass their experiences onto the children e.g. that they had tried it and it was nice.
To reduce the cost of the event - further training courses have been held, within a large nursery kitchen, and without formal analysis of food from the nurseries. A simple tally chart was devised to show the frequency and distribution of the food groups of the nursery menus.
Future Developments
The project aims to:
- Encourage Central Government to develop nutritional standards for nurseries, catering sized recipes, and to work with Ofsted to ensure their implementation through all nursery providers.
- To expand the course and offer it to more nurseries within the borough. At present the Community Dietician for Early learners and Croydon PCT, are running 2 courses a year using this project as a template.
- To improve the amount of healthy and nutritious recipes available for nurseries as we found it difficult to find suitable healthy and ‘child friendly’ recipes. Also nursery staff said that they also found it hard to find recipes - one reason why pre-packed foods were used in the nurseries.
- To employ the presentation Chef to visit the nurseries individually and spend time with them to encourage more food to be made from basic ingredients and not to use ready meals or ‘value’ type foods.
Contact Details
Contact Name: Abi Herbert
Job Title: Environmental Health Officer
Phone: 0208 726 6000 x 62141
Email: abigail.herbert@croydon.gov.uk
Website: http://www.croydononline.org/living/nursery_nutrition/
Organisation: Croydon Council
Address: 9th Floor Taberner House Park Lane Croydon CR9 3BT