Children’s healthy eating cookery sessions by award winning chef at Whitby Pavilion
21 February
In support of the national ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign,
children aged between 9 and 11 from two schools in Whitby are
baking cakes at Whitby Pavilion on Thursday 23 February.
The initiative is part of a school educational food programme to
encourage children to be more aware of healthy eating from home
cooking as an alternative to processed food. The initiative also
illustrates how leftovers can actually be used for more baking,
rather than just being thrown away. The programme is supported by
grant funding by Scarborough Borough Council and North Yorkshire
County Council.
Wynne Jones has organised the event in her role as co-ordinator
of Whitby 4 Sustainability, which is a community group that
recently won a silver award in a sub-regional greener neighbourhood
competition. The one year competition involved community groups
from across North Yorkshire undertaking actions to reduce their
carbon footprint by reducing their energy usage in the home, less
food waste, improving on their recycling and composting, using more
sustainable modes of transport, reducing water usage, and growing
or purchasing local food.
Wynne Jones, co-ordinator of Whitby 4 Sustainability and also a
Whitby Town Councillor said:
“The cake baking will be a fun and educational event for the
children to learn about healthy eating options and how leftovers
can be used for innovative and tasty recipes. We have also arranged
for the children to wear chef’s hats during the cookery session at
the cafe at Whitby Pavilion as well!"
The two schools involved in the day are St Hilda's Roman
Catholic Primary School and Fylingdales Church of England Voluntary
Controlled Primary School. From each school there will be 16 pupils
and 8 adults including teachers and parents, with each school
having a half day session.
Local chef, dinner lady champion-award, Katherine Breckon, who
works in Whitby West Cliff Primary School, is taking the schools
through their paces at the pavilion's cookery sessions. Katherine
was awarded North Yorkshire Schools Chef of the Year 2011 and
runner up for 2012. The ‘Torville and Dean’ cake that the children
will be making has been taken from Kath's award-winning menu. The
idea is that the leftovers from the cake baking will be used by the
children to make their own bread on the day as well.
Katherine Breckon said:
"They'll get their hands into the flow, kneading the bread,
whisking eggs and piping cream, and get to take home their bread
roll and a Torville and Dean Duet Cream sponge, so their families
can sample all their own work.”
Dr James Bridges, Sustainability Officer for Scarborough Borough
Council has been supporting the Whitby 4 Sustainability Group all
the way in their greener neighbourhood project:
“Its great news that the Whitby 4 Sustainability Group are
continuing with their excellent work, and in this case facilitating
a local sustainability initiative for the school children. This is
an excellent opportunity for them to grasp first hand that
leftovers can actually be a valuable resource for creating more
recipes and meals. Reducing food waste also reduces our
environmental impact as we are using less resources in the first
place and thus reducing our pressure and our demands on the
environment.”
Reducing food waste is a major issue. The Waste & Resources
Action Programme (WRAP) which has facilitated the ‘Love Food Hate
Waste’ campaign suggests that we throw away 7.2 million tonnes of
food from our homes every year in the UK; and that wasting food
costs the average family with children around £680 a year, that is
equivalent to £50 a month.
Donna Gaddass, Scarborough Borough Council’s Recycling Officer
added:
‘The Love Food Hate Waste website www.lovefoodhatewaste.com is
an excellent source of information for the community as it provides
recipes for using up leftovers and handy tips and advice to help
all of us waste less food. If leftovers cannot be used for further
recipes then another option is to make your soil more fertile by
composting some food waste such as vegetables and fruits, our
website has some great hints
and tips on composting.”
Whitby 4 Sustainability is planning to continue to organise
community and educational workshops including further school
cookery programmes in the foreseeable future.
For further information on the Neighbourhood Challenge contact
James Bridges, Sustainability Officer at Scarborough Borough
Council by emailing james.bridges@scarborough.gov.uk
For further information on the ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign
in the borough contact Donna Gaddass, Recycling Officer at
Scarborough Borough Council by emailing donna.gaddass@scarborough.gov.uk