What’s Cooking Kids? Supporting Healthy Eating Across The North East

Hi and welcome to the Learning Exchange What's Cooking Kids? forum. Over the remaining seven month’s of this project I hope that Community Food Leaders will join the Learning Exchange and use this forum to forge links between their clubs by sharing their experience, hints and tips to support sustainability in the ever-changing funding climate.

Just a bit of background - in case anyone who isn't familiar with What's Cooking Kids happens to visit this forum: ContinYou developed What’s Cooking Kids? as an intervention to support children and their parents to make healthier food choices that will improv their health and well-being. Working across the North East as part of the North East Strategic Health Authority’s, New Leaf New Life, Health and Wellbeing portfolio, the project is assisting in tackling childhood obesity and health inequalities.

What’s Cooking Kids? uses a delivery model which involves recruiting and training adults from local communities to deliver the intervention. A valuable network of Community Food Leaders is being developed across the region that draws on expertise in local areas.

To date activities have been delivered in a diverse range of settings from schools to community centres and sports stadiums. At the Clubs children and parents get an opportunity to do some hands on cooking while learning about healthy eating and nutrition; food hygiene and food handling. By March 2011 the project will have set up 200 What’s Cooking Kids? Clubs and spread the healthy eating message to 2400 children, young people and parents.

I really encourage you to post your questions here, as well as your ideas and good practice - and I or Julie Payne who also works on the project, will answer you. we're looking forward to hearing from you!