All aboard the bus that gives you the fare

Published on Tuesday 19 August 2008 20:00

A government-backed initiative to improve the nation’s nutrition revs up as Scotland’s first Cooking Bus takes to the road, reports Joan McFadden

WHEN she first started teaching domestic science in 1970, Anita Cormac found herself passing on the same expertise she was taught in school, and was confident that equipping children with one of the most basic life skills would remain a vital part of the curriculum.

She could never have imagined that, nearly 40 years later, as executive director of food education programme Focus on Food, she would be at the forefront of a campaign to teach cooking and healthy eating skills to children, parents, teachers and community groups. The campaign seeks to rectify the damage done by 20 years of failing to recognise the importance of teaching cookery comprehensively in schools.

As the school term starts, Scotland’s first Cooking Bus will head to Cumbernauld, aiming to match the work done in England and Wales, where over 25,000 children are taught to cook and 1,500 teachers are trained every year on these colourful kitchens on wheels.

The project is funded by Focus on Food, the Scottish Government, the Food Standards Agency, local authorities and community groups, at no charge to the recipients. On-board lessons teach children how to cook simple healthy meals as well as essential food handling and preparation skills. Top of the menu is learning about vital food issues such as nutrition, hygiene and recycling.

At primary and secondary schools across Scotland, the bus will offer children and their teachers specially tailored classes in a safe, well-equipped mobile kitchen.

Equipped with an outside plasma screen, the bus will also encourage visitors, especially in rural areas, to gather round and watch the cooking workshop. To help make a lasting difference, the programme will provide schools and community groups with cooking equipment and teaching resources.

During school holidays, classes will also be held for community group leaders, with a particular focus on deprived areas, to help tackle health inequalities.

Reports on obesity, poor diet and lack of fitness centre on ignorance. People don’t eat well, usually, because they don’t know how to cook nutritious food, irrespective of their budget, resulting in diets high in sugar, salt and fat. According to Cormac, the change of focus in cookery teaching has resulted in generations of adults unable to cook the most basic food.

“In schools now, children learn everything about food, but not how to cook it, unless they actively pick that as a subject option,” she says.

“Yet everyone involved in food, at any level, emphasises that the only way guaranteed to get children interested in new, healthy foods is to get them cooking.

“Cooking in schools would previously have been backed up by observing cooking procedures at home. But when parents haven’t been taught to cook, the problem continues to worsen, with families of all ages knowing little about nutrition, local food or how to cook it.”

The teachers on the Cooking Bus use local ingredients and offer age-appropriate sessions, with children as young as four taught for an hour and a quarter, and older children for up to half a day.

“It has a fantastic effect on the children,” says Cormac. “Formal evaluations of the success of the Cooking Buses are measured by how much of the information and skills are retained, and officials from the Food Standards Agency said they were astounded by the sheer amount of information children retained even three and a half years later.

“Furthermore, they built on that – children were saying, ‘I taught my mum to cook,’ ‘I taught my gran to cook,’ ‘We kept all the recipes at home and we still make them’ – and you can clearly see both the enjoyment and what they’ve learned to do all wrapped up together. Some of it is about confidence and getting used to situations that simply never happen at home – such as preparing a meal and sitting down to eat with other people – it might seem perfectly normal to some of us but other families will never have done that.”

In Scotland, home economics has been assessed as a shortage subject for some years, although most state schools still try to ensure all pupils in first and second year have at least one period a week of home economics in the form of cookery lessons. But that can be affected by the calibre of teacher, with one head, who preferred not to be named, summing up her latest member of staff as “not being able to separate an egg”.

Redressing that balance are schools such as Firrhill High School in Edinburgh, which has had an enthusiastic response to its “Survival Cookery” sessions, offered in 6th year. They focus on teaching pupils to cook a varied and tasty menu, with fresh and healthy ingredients throughout.

“That’s exactly the sort of thing we want to see,” enthuses Cormac. “It’s great when schools take the initiative like that, and if I had my way I’d like a minimum of another three buses in Scotland. Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated and it can be taught from a very young age.”

Her enthusiasm is unbounded, which is fortunate, as she maintains it has taken six years of planning and campaigning to bring the Cookery Bus to Scotland, supported by people including chef Nick Nairn, food writers and politicians from all parties.

“So far, 200 schools have applied for visits from the Cooking Bus and we’re keen to see other schools do the same,” she says.

“By training more people to teach cookery and involving the community, especially in deprived areas, we want to make sure more people understand the link between food and health and preparing them to make informed choices about what they eat in the future.”

She continues: “I love cooking for other people. And that’s what I want to achieve with the Cooking Buses – getting people involved in something which is the most basic human skill but can be learned by everyone with wonderful results, in terms of health as well as sheer enjoyment. Start them young and their enthusiasm will have no limits.”

&#149 Requests for Cooking Bus visits can be submitted online at www.focusonfood.org or by phone on 01422 383 191.