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The Isle of Wight Community Chef Service

The Community Chef Service was established in January 2004 with the aim of increasing awareness of the components of a healthy diet through teaching practical skills in food choice, food preparation and food hygiene. The focus of the programme has been to inspire enjoyment in good food, to help children and adults cook dishes from scratch and become more confident about food. In our view the enjoyment of the food is a key component of making healthy food choices easier. Since the project was established sessions have been delivered to over 15,000 children and almost 4,500 adults.

The Chefs wear the full chef’s “whites” complete with the traditional toque and chilli pepper trousers to deliver all sessions. This aspect of the service has been especially important in helping to ensure their sessions have a strong and enduring impact on the children they work with.

The service has worked closely with the IW Healthy Schools programme and the work of the chefs in schools has helped to contribute to the development of a “whole-school approach” to healthy eating which is an essential component of validation for Enhanced Healthy School status.

Here are some of the ways this has been achieved in practice by the Chefs:

Help to negotiate barriers to healthy eating

• Showing how to choose affordable ingredients
• Giving ideas for involving children in growing, planning, shopping and preparing meals
• Using bread dough as the basis for a play activity for toddlers and then baking the rolls

Opportunities to try new ingredients and dishes

• Linking the language curriculum with the chance to try typical French foods
• Healthy Christmas Nibbles

What people have said about taking part in the project:

Children:

“I’ve learnt how to prepare yummy food”.
“I enjoyed making the salad because every bit was so juicy”.
“I tried broccoli and bean shoots for the first time”.
“Thank you for teaching us to make extremely nice food. I taught my Mum how to make wraps”.

Teachers:

“Some of the children try foods for the first time, the atmosphere lets them take to opportunity to try something new”
“The children loved the session. The chef was really enthusiastic which motivated the children. There was a really good awareness of health and safety issues. Thank you”.
“Having the Community Chefs available to support curriculum events and reinforce healthy lifestyles has been really invaluable”