Family Cook 'n' Eat - Nov 09 - Photos and Report below

Family Cook and Eats, Nov 09

Another successful course! This course was a pilot course a follow up from the ‘summer family cook and eats’. This pilot course was set up to see if we would have interest and how it would work in the evenings. To my surprise it worked really well and there is a demand for it so therefore the course may become a regular and ongoing activity for families to join in Jan 2010.

The idea behind the family cook and eats was that it would give parents/carers an opportunity to bond, spend quality time and build on new and existing cooking skills with their children as well as receive healthy eating messages.

The course took place once a week on a Monday night for 4 weeks. I had 3 families booked on it. It was a small group but very pleasant. The course was based around the needs of the families and they all had different needs. One family had been interested for a while, but didn’t want to put there name down on the school’s cook and eat list due to being stigmatised, the other just wanted basic recipes for the children to cook and the last just wanted to spend quality time with the children. The course incorporated all the needs of the families alongside the course outcomes.

These sessions in particular focused on the children. The sessions help build the children’s confidence around cooking skills and healthy eating. It also builds strong relationships and quality time. The children were in control of decision making, recipes choosing and the overall preparation of food. One parent mentioned how unconfident and scared she felt around preparing food before she came to the sessions and now her fears gone. She has attempted to make a few recipes at home and was gutted that the sessions were only 4 weeks. Another parent mentioned how her daughter only prepared meat items at home and the sessions gave her an opportunity to prepare vegetables.

Overall all the sessions have been a real success. The parents and children have had great fun. The group has requested to continue with more sessions in the New Year.