Food Festival Education Trust primary school cookery days begin

The first in a series of Christchurch primary school cookery days run by Christchurch Food Festival Education Trust has taken place at Somerford Primary Community School.

All seven primary schools in the Borough will be visited by Food Festival President Mary Reader with a team of local chefs to show the children some healthy recipes and, in some of the schools, getting them to cook for themselves.

Sainsbury’s are sponsoring the cookery days by providing all the food that is needed for the demonstrations and the children’s own cookery.

All of the recipes presented at the schools will tie in with the themes and countries which the pupils are studying as part of their curriculum. At Somerford School, for example, the children are studying the theme of water and the country of Egypt. The recipes which they cooked were a fish tagine accompanied by a cucumber feta salsa.

Mary Reader, who is also a trustee of the Education Trust, said: “Not only is it important for us to show the children some healthy ideas when it comes to presenting the recipes, but we also make sure that everything is relevant to what they are studying. That has presented us with some interesting challenges this year as the countries of study range from Ghana to the Antarctic!

“We’re delighted that Sainsbury’s have come on board to help us out with providing all of the food.”

Geraldine Staples from Sainsbury’s in Lyndhurst Road said: “Being local we like to help the community and we’re glad we are able to help all of the schools in the Borough with the excellent work that is being carried out by the Food Festival Education Trust. Having visited Somerford School I can see just how much the children get out of these cookery days.”