Children at a North Tyneside primary school are ‘baking and shaking’ this summer as they develop new cooking skills and healthy eating expertise.
The High Kicks Community Interest Company is running a ten-week, after school course for pupils at Westmoor Primary School in Forest Hall through which more than a dozen children are learning to make healthy meals from scratch before taking part in a range of physical activities while they’re cooking.
The children are also learning kitchen hygiene skills as part of the ‘Bake & Shake’ course and are being encouraged to explore different foods through tasting and smelling before all sitting down together to enjoy the meals they’ve prepared.
The project is being funded through a £1,992 grant from North East developer the Banks Group and is designed to make cooking engaging, fun and affordable for the children and their families.
Recipe booklets are also being given to the young cooks which they can take home and share with their families.
High Kicks CIC is a non-profit organisation which aims to make cooking and mealtimes enjoyable by building children’s confidence, promotes healthier habits, strengthening social bonds and sharing essential skills for life.
Founded three years ago, it works with a number of other schools across North Tyneside and launched its Bake, Shake and Enrich Programme to tackle key challenges being faced by children and families from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Julia Devine, founder of High Kicks CIC, says: “Bake & Shake has been specifically designed to help address lots of the issues that disadvantaged families face in a fun, engaging way and to help the children taking part to develop more knowledge about and interest in the food they eat and how it’s made.
“Adding different physical activities like yoga, dance or sports into the session points young people towards an active lifestyle in a fun and engaging way, while sitting everyone down to eat together at the end builds community, improves communication and helps to encourage fussier eaters to try some new foods.
“We’ve seen lots of great examples of the children picking up new cookery and healthy eating knowledge by taking part in our programme, and we also often get reports back from teachers on how much of a positive impact it has also had on behaviour, with the prospect of their weekly Bake & Shake session giving kids much more focus in the classroom.
“We’re really excited to be working with Westmoor and really grateful to the Banks Group for their support, without which we simply wouldn’t be able to be putting on the course.”
Jamilah Hassan, community relations manager at the Banks Group, adds: “There are so many different benefits that the Westmoor pupils and their families will get from this fantastic initiative and lots of fun for them to have along the way!”
The Banks Group’s community funds are independently managed by Point North (formerly the County Durham Community Foundation).
Anyone from a community close to a Banks Group project who is interested in applying for funding from the Banks Community Fund should contact the company via its website enquiry form (www.banksgroup.co.uk/contact-us/) to find out if their group or project is eligible.