Kent Cooks!
Supporting case study for Kents Food Champion application
Kent Cooks is a pilot project which worked with schools to develop a parent and pupil healthy food competition to encourage families to cook together.
Kent County Council proposed to launch a range of community-based healthy eating pilots (Kent Towards 2010) (Target 51).
Key partners from health, education and community were consulted and a mapping exercise and literature search was conducted to ensure pilot’s best met community needs.
The Department of Health Social Marketing review of evidence has shown that families do not make healthy lifestyle choices because they believe they are too challenging. For example time spent preparing meals in 1980 was 2 hours compared to 20 minutes in 2000. This loss in preparation time has led to an increase in the uptake of ready made and convenience meals which often are of low nutritional value and contain high levels of salt, fat, sugar and preservatives.
Many families do not eat together so meals may not be cooked leaving individual family members to help themselves to something convenient. Parents also may find it is easier to let children chose what they want to eat as this makes mealtimes less confrontational.
Kent County Council proposed to address these barriers by launching Kent Cooks! a cooking competition for schools in January 2009 to encourage children and families to cook together.
Aims and Objectives
The aim was to launch Kent Cooks! and evaluate its success at impacting on child and parental healthy eating awareness, knowledge, attitude and behaviour with the aim of:
- improving children and parents’ knowledge and understanding of healthy eating, nutrition, portion sizes and a balanced diet
- improving knowledge of cost of healthy foods
- dispelling myths that healthy meals are expensive and time consuming to produce
- increasing confidence about food and cooking
- increasing the number of healthy, home cooked meals
- improving the diet and health of the family
- engendering support for after school cookery clubs
- Schools would run activities around healthy eating.
- Children would be encouraged to practice their meal ideas at home with their parents to raise parental awareness of healthy eating and to highlight that healthy meals can be affordable and quick to prepare.
Partners
KCC appointed a Kent Cooks! Project Manager to develop and manage this pilot for two days a week, between August 2008 and July 2009.
The Project Manager worked in partnership with Kent schools and catering colleges, Food Technology Teachers, and members of the catering industry including local chefs and eating establishments.
Methodology
- The pilot and materials were developed with a food technology teacher and concept tested with a selection of schools.
- A Project Manager was recruited to plan, launch and run the competition, finalise information packs for schools, seek sponsorship and prizes and identify venues and judges.
- Partners were invited to offer ideas and support to the project as well as select a logo.
- All secondary schools in Kent were invited to enter for one of 12 places. Pupils were encouraged to work with parents to design a healthy balanced two course meal based on the principals of the Eatwell plate. Successful schools selected a winner and runner up from the school from a written entry.
- A panel of judges selected 7 finalists from the entries who were invited to prepare their entry at Thanet College in front of judges and a live audience via video link.
Promotion
The competition was launched to all secondary schools in Kent in January 2009. Twelve schools expressed an interest and the competition was launched to pupils in a variety of ways including posters, class activities and assemblies.
Over 400 entries were received and the final live “cook off” was held at Thanet College in front of an invited audience including the finalists’ families, teachers and senior colleagues from within KCC and the PCT’s and elected Members. Prizes were awarded by the Head of Catering at Thanet College and a KCC Councillor. Photographs were taken, press releases were issued and filming took place during the final to be included in a DVD showcasing the healthy eating pilots.
To celebrate the day, a cook book was produced for finalists and their school featuring the finalists’ recipes, as well as healthy eating tips, the Eatwell plate and a seasonal food chart. This cook book was promoted to the schools involved in the competition and parents have been able to purchase copies directly from the printer. Schools have promoted the results of the competition internally such as on their websites or through their newsletters.
Partners attending this event such as Extended Schools Development Managers and Healthy Schools Specialists have continued to promote the event to all schools with a view to stimulating an interest in after schools cooking clubs.
Resources
Resources needed included:
- Packs for schools including lesson plans, rules, entry forms and guidance. These will be available from KCC.
- A Project Manager to set up and manage the competition (around 2 days a week)
- A venue to hold the final competition with catering facilities and equipment
- A budget of £13,000 covered the project manager’s salary, the development of the project identity i.e. logo, ingredients and prizes for finalists, the venue hire and associated staff costs and the production of a cookery book containing the 12 finalists’ recipes.
Evaluation
Due to the small sample size it was decided to use qualitative data collection methods only. Evaluation activities centred on the final competition event with further in depth qualitative assessment involving in-depth interviews with finalists, parents, teachers and the Head of catering at Thanet College. As a result there are no statistics available but evaluators recorded the following outcomes:
For pupils:
- raised awareness of healthy eating
- increased confidence among participating pupils “[she] thought she was no good at cooking but getting to the final has given her the belief that she can cook” – quote from a parent of one of the finalists
- new skills learnt in food preparation and use of kitchen implements
- a desire to continue cooking in the future
- raising awareness of healthy eating among children
- strengthening links between KCC, schools and the host catering college
- an increased interest in schools after the final, generated through schools celebrating the achievements of the pupils who were in the final.
Lessons Learned
The event required considerable set-up and preparation time to work with the schools, to prepare the necessary materials and to arrange the final event.
Parents and pupils didn’t always understand what was required even though information had been passed to the school
There was some difficulty in meeting the requirements for the menu dishes to be low cost and healthy and to also use locally sourced seasonal products
There was a general view that participating pupils tended to be those who were already interested in cooking and had an awareness of healthy eating rather than those who had previously had little engagement
It was clear that engagement was greatest where the teacher within the school was fully committed to and enthusiastic about the pilot.
Future Developments
The Kent Cooks! cooking competition was established as a pilot across Kent. The evaluation evidence has indicated that, as a pilot initiative, it has worked well; it is a good model that can be easily replicated and adapted.
Whilst there are clear areas for improvement both in terms of project set-up and implementation as well as achieving positive outcomes, the model itself appears to have the capacity to raise awareness of healthy eating and cooking issues, to improve knowledge of cost issues and of seasonality and to increase confidence around food preparation.
Contact Details
Contact Name: Joanne Condon
Job Title: Towards 2010 Project Manager
Phone: 01622 696598
Email: joanne.condon@kent.gov.uk
Organisation: Kent County Council
Address: Room 1.55, Sessions House, County Hall, County Road, Maidstone ME14 1XQ
This case study was added 23/03/10