SOME schoolchildren don’t know what a carrot is or even that a beefburger comes from a cow, claims a Jersey charity which is calling for better food education in schools.
Caring Cooks of Jersey wants to see home economics lessons introduced in all primary schools to teach children how to cook and to help share the healthy eating message with their families.
The call comes as a survey of 1,000 children in the UK this week revealed that one in five of them had no idea that bacon came from pigs, while one in 20 thought that we got cheese from the animal.
Caring Cooks of Jersey founder Melissa Nobrega said that a worrying number of children in Jersey did not know where food came from or what fresh produce was.
Now with the help of a £22,000 grant from the One Foundation, the charity is aiming to help schoolchildren re-engage with the origins of food, nutrition and cooking, so that they grow up with a fuller understanding of how food reaches them and learn how to cook from a young age.
And today JEP Parenting can reveal that Caring Cooks of Jersey is launching a new schools cooking programme which will start at Rouge Bouillon School in September.
‘It is to bring the family food experience together,’ said Mrs Nobrega. ‘We want children to have food experiences in schools that complement our parent cooking programme and bring the two parties together, so they are talking about food in the home together.’
The charity runs a weekly cookery programme at Le Rocquier School that teaches parents how to cook healthy family meals on a budget, and they have now decided to target schoolchildren to spread their healthy eating message.
‘Our Community Cooking Programme has been a massive success, but some kids today don’t even know what a carrot is, and there is no context about where food comes from or what fresh produce is,’ said Mrs Nobrega. ‘There isn’t enough education about food and it is really worrying that children don’t know that a burger comes from a cow.
‘Home economics has been long gone in schools and it is time to turn the wheel back around and create excitement about food again.
‘We need to get eating habits right now because if we fast-forward 20 years, we are going to be in a real situation in this Island. Food is so important and I see some children going to school really tired, as they have not had a breakfast. How are they going to study in school?
‘Some feedback from the schools is that some children aren’t having anything to eat and are coming to school with a really light lunchbox and having a packet of crisps at night.
‘We would like to work with the States to help to do something in all schools, as we can only do so much – we need more support from Education.’
Caring Cooks of Jersey’s new manager, Michelle Banks, will be working with the children from Year 5 at Rouge Bouillon School for one-hourly sessions every week.
‘I will be working with small groups making food that they can then make at home and enjoy with their family,’ Mrs Banks said.
‘I think some of them don’t have the opportunity to have a lot of things to eat, and I get the impression that breakfast and lunchboxes are a bit scarce. This gives them a chance to try different things. Children get very excited if they have made food themselves, and they are spurred on by each other.’
Mrs Banks said that children today were losing out because parents were not passing on their skills as many of them worked full time and do not have the time to cook. ‘There is a group of parents who have this missed opportunity because their parents had to go back to work as full-time working mums and convenience meals came in,’ she added.
‘Everyone’s lives have changed. Family time around the table doesn’t really exist for a lot of people. Children want to eat in front of the telly. Dad comes in from work and wants to eat in front of the telly.
‘Kitchens are smaller and there is hardly room for a table. You find the whole family splits and mealtimes are not social occasions. It is a case of stick the fork in the cellophane and have whatever you want at whatever time. People are losing those skills of cooking, as they are not seeing their parents cooking.’
Rouge Bouillon School’s Healthy Eating Week follows a year-long education programme that has been led by health and fitness practitioner Scott Welsh.
As part of the States of Jersey’s ‘Fit for the Future’ five-year strategy, Mr Welsh has been working closely with Rouge Bouillon, the trial school for the scheme, since September. His main role has been to promote healthy living, by educating the pupils and parents in how to improve eating habits and to take better quality exercise.
Mr Welsh said: ‘Jersey has stated its intention to improve local communities by bringing families closer together. An important aspect that has been highlighted is the need for healthier lifestyles, and alongside this is the realisation that, in some cases, children in Jersey have to be more independent at younger ages, helping with cooking, preparing their own lunchboxes as well as looking after their siblings.
‘One of our school parents highlighted Caring Cooks to me and the services they offer, as she was enrolled on one of their programmes. She explained how much her life had improved because of them and what a difference they had made to her children’s eating habits.’
Mr Welsh says that the school now wants to introduce children to some basic cooking skills that they can take home with them.
Mark de Luca, deputy headteacher at Rouge Bouillon School, said: ‘Healthy Eating Week is the culmination of a lot of hard work in this school year. It’s a review of learning and how habits have changed for the better.
‘We really are laying great foundations for healthier lives, and what the children learn is being relayed at home and so benefiting the whole household. Our plans don’t stop with Healthy Eating Week; next on the agenda is building on what we have done so far, including Caring Cooks cookery courses for children and parents.’
THIS children’s book review of the week comes from Julie Pirouet one of the founders of Kids Rock Jersey.
The Very Lazy Ladybird by Isobel Finn and illustrated by Jack Tickle
JEP Parenting Page is celebrating after its Facebook followers, along with politicians and other parenting organisations, helped to shape a better future for breastfeeding mothers in Jersey.
Last week the States voted to allow mothers to be able to feed their babies at any age in public without the fear of being discriminated against.
We want to thank all of our Facebook followers who took part in our recent breastfeeding survey, on behalf of Deputy Louise Doublet.
Deputy Doublet and Deputy Tracey Vallois successfully amended the Sex Discrimination Regulations with no votes against their amendment.
In the States, Deputy Doublet thanked JEP Parenting Page for helping her with her research. She told Members: ‘I did have some help from the JEP Parenting Page which ran a poll that was so overwhelmingly in support of being tolerant of women breastfeeding in public that I started to think that there shouldn’t be an age limit on this.’
Deputy Doublet went on to thank NCT Jersey, the Jersey Child Care Trust Breastfeeding Support Group and the Jersey Community Relations Trust for their help and support.
Writing on her Facebook page, she said: ‘I am very pleased to announce that my amendment to the Sex Discrimination Regulations was passed today, with no votes against. It was passed “as amended” by Deputy Vallois, so together we have achieved protection from discrimination for all breastfeeding mothers, whatever age their baby is.
There is an event being held on the 23 June at Millbrook Park to bring together breastfeeding Mums and promote the importance of women being able to feed their babies while out and about.
‘GOOD morning. I’m too unwell to be a parent today so I am phoning in sick.’
You just can’t be sick when you’re a parent – especially a mum – as we learnt last week. If there was ever a need for a ‘parent phone in sick day’ we desperately needed it after travelling back from Ireland after half-term feeling and looking like death warmed up.
My husband and I both felt hideous from whatever virus we had picked up – our bodies ached and our stomachs were as loose as a child’s first tooth about to fall out. But wait… we were on a 17-hour ferry from Ireland to France, had a drive from Cherbourg to St Malo ahead of us before catching another ferry to Jersey that evening.
There was no time for sick-notes. We just had to get on with it and get into survival mode. Knowing it wasn’t seasickness, as it was such a smooth crossing, the realisation set in at about 3 am that we had caught the vomiting bug that our children had had the day before.
After a journey from hell with two young, hungry children, who had now miraculously recovered, were now looking for breakfast and were desperate to burn some energy, we somehow managed to disembark and took refuge in a café/child’s play area somewhere near Cherbourg port.
I suggested that my husband, who was now green and shaking, should try to sleep off his bug in the car while I ordered breakfast for the children – the last thing you want to see and smell when you are feeling so ill. All I wanted to do was get into my pyjamas and my own bed, but somehow I managed to find the energy to get through it – you somehow do as a mum – but at least the hour’s nap managed to put some colour back on my husband’s cheeks.
By then I was green – not just with envy that he had managed to have a ‘break’ – sorry, sleep – with sickness as the bug fully kicked in on me. We limped our way back to St Malo to catch another ferry. I was the colour of the Incredible Hulk by the time we arrived back to Jersey that evening.
My OCD of having to unpack the car as soon as we arrive home went out the window and we just sank into our pillows before it sunk in that our sick day the next day looked something like this:
‘We are parents and cannot have a sick day. There are lunchboxes to be made/children to be fed/washed/dressed and entertained/school runs to do/breakfast/dinners/and a week’s worth of holiday baggage from the car to unload.’
[figure caption=”ParishPlaygroup: JEAN Chapman and her friend Margaret Figgett have been running St Clement’s Church Mothers and Toddlers group for nearly 30 years. They also have the help from Brenda Myatt, Sarah Ayton and Lorraine Stefan.
All of them are volunteers from St Clement’s Church who meet in term time only, on Monday afternoons from 1.30 pm to 4pm at the Caldwell Hall.
They charge £2 to cover the cost of tea, coffee, juice, biscuits and fruit. They have painting and Playdough, toys and singing each week. If you want your Parish Playgroup featured in the JEP and have a lovely keepsake for your child with their first friends at playgroup please email parenting@jerseyeveningpost.com.” title=”9019107″ align=”center” url=”/wpmvc/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/9019107.jpg” id=”1340483″ size=”100″]