From the farm to the fork

Thursday 07 September 2023

This summer, children have been learning all about their food and how it moves from the farm to their fork with seven-year-old Molly summing the experience up as "yummy!".

She and other children who attended Playscheme sessions over their school holidays were taught how to cook different foods and also learned where that food had come from. Finally, they also got to taste the food.

The Health Improvement Commission introduced the 'Farm to Fork' project in collaboration with the Youth Commission which runs Playscheme.

Pictured: The Farm to Fork project focused on healthy eating and showing where food comes from.

Cat Tyrrell, the Eat Well Project Support Officer at the Health Improvement Commission, said they've learned that encouraging children to eat fruit and vegetables can come down to very simple measures like cutting it into very small pieces or by choosing colourful snacks.

The hope is that by showing children how food can go from the 'farm to fork' will also encourage them to try a wider variety of food.

“When we speak to parents, often we hear that they are anxious to make changes to lunch boxes in case their child doesn’t like it or won’t eat it," she said.

"What we found during Playscheme, was that the free fruit and veg snack provided every morning was heartily eaten up with little to no waste. The Youth Commission staff did a great job in making this snack more appealing to little ones, by chopping it up into smaller, more manageable pieces. All of our tasting and cooking sessions also used wholemeal or wholegrain varieties of bread, wraps and pittas, which were positively received by all children.

"This tells us that there are some simple swaps that can be made to lunch boxes which not only will add nutritional value to a child’s lunch but are also swaps which they will enjoy.”

Emma Cusack is the Playscheme co-ordinator for the Youth Commission. She agreed that positive relationships with food can be easily achieved through gentle encouragement. 

“This project has highlighted to us the value of helping children develop positive relationships with food through fun activities and in giving them opportunities to learn about new, tasty nutritious foods," she said.

"Participants were much more likely to try the food on offer if they were involved and saw their peers trying it, which underlines the importance of children and young people settings adopting whole setting approaches to healthy eating.”

Pictured: Children attending Playscheme went on trips including to the Dairy and shopping for food.

The Playscheme leaders worked with children throughout the summer meaning each attendee had the chance to learn about, cook and taste the provided food.

Around 300 vegetable portions were included, along with protein sources and high-fibre carbohydrates.

Every child was also given a free fruit and vegetable snack every day they attended Playscheme.

In total, more than 1500 portions of food were tried out by the children.

Molly said her favourite session was the cooking, "because I liked everyone working together as a team and it was yummy!"

Harry, also aged seven agreed wholeheartedly and has shared what he learned with his family too.

“Since the Farm to Fork cooking session I have made all three of the recipes again at home," he said. "This time I tried aubergine on my pitta pizzas. Mushrooms really are my favourite thing now!”

Ally has two children aged six and 10 who went to Playscheme and took part in the 'Farm to Fork' project which she said was really valuable to them.

“Projects like these are really important for young people to get in touch with nature and learn about where their food comes from, get messy and have fun. Children might not always realise the importance of healthy food options and it’s nice for them to be able to explore this in a friendly setting.”