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Government throw millions behind children's cooking

5th February 2009, 1:05pm

Ed Balls has said that parents must encourage their kids to cook at home as the government allocated £56 million aimed at helping them reach their goal.

In 2011, cooking lessons will be compulsory and these plans announced by the Children's Secretary are all part of the government's bigger movement to combat child obesity.

Mr Balls said it was it was not just down to schools to teach young people to cook - but that parents needed to be helped and encouraged to teach their children how to prepare meals from scratch.

He also set out the next steps in training up a new generation of skilled and motivated staff to run practical cooking classes and building top class new facilities.

Experts say without any intervention, 90% of today's children could be overweight or obese and at risk from serious diseases by 2050.

The full £56.3m package is:

£2.1m new investment over the next two years to recruit and train 750 specialist higher-level teaching assistants to help run classes;

£1.2m for a new continuous professional development programme for train 400 existing teachers to teach practical cooking classes – to increase the number of teachers trained to deliver food technology;

£53m for new practical cooking spaces in schools – with £300,000 grants each over the next two years for 170 secondary schools. It is the first tranche of funding from the £150m announced in September 2008 for 515 secondary schools which have no facilities at present – the Government is writing to local authorities today to urge them to bid for the remaining schools.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: "Teaching children how to prepare basic recipes from scratch is fun to do at school and at home. It helps young people get the skills to go on to cook healthily for life.

"Many adults don't cook properly or pass on cooking skills to young people – because they feel they don't have time; have never learnt how; or feel that proper cooking is too expensive. Celebrity chef cookbooks and TV shows have never been more popular but far too many people see cooking as entertainment not something they actually do day-in day-out.

"Obesity is the biggest long-term health issue facing this country. It is hard to believe but the experts say that nine out of ten of children today could be obese or overweight by 2050. Cooking in schools is an important part of the wider the Change4Life movement to get families eating well, moving more and living longer – but it is just the start.

"Today's measures are vital in gearing up secondary schools to offer practical cooking lessons from 2012 – putting expert and well-trained staff and good facilities in place across the board. It is extraordinary that there are still 515 secondaries with no facilities to teaching cooking, including 150 mainly boys-only schools which do not teach cooking at all –that is something our big investment is going to tackle.

"But I've always been clear that the onus to pass on cooking skills should not just fall on teachers. This is not about telling families what to do and what to eat. The fact is that if parents never prepare or eat meals together, then we risk children growing up uninterested in cooking or living healthily.

"That's why we now need to take our Real Meals campaign further. We need supermarkets and the food industry on board to help learning how to cook properly a normal part of growing up."

Related Articles:

03 Nov 2009 - New data suggests child obesity may be levelling off
28 Apr 2009 - Too many children not getting enough exercise
12 Mar 2009 - Health time bomb ticking away in East End

Words Clare Riley 0 comments

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