Youngsters get the taste for healthy food

Pupils at St Mary’s RC Primary, Middleton enjoy their cook and taste session

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Pupils at St Mary’s RC Primary, Middleton have been discovering how good healthy food can taste thanks to a scheme to promote healthy living.

Rochdale Borough Council’s Health Improvement team is working with the school’s local Lakeland Grocers to support the NHS’ Change4Life campaign.

As part of the scheme, two cook and taste sessions were held at the school for years 3 and 4 with the store providing the fruit for both events.

Anna Dean, School Nutrition Advisor for the council, showed the pupils how to make fruit kebabs before giving them the chance to sample the delicious results.

All the children enjoyed the sessions and took Change4Life recipes and information home with them.

Lakeland Grocers in Middleton is one of four shops across the borough which has signed up to the Change4Life retailer project. Managed and promoted by the council’s Health Improvement Team, the scheme aims to improve fruit and vegetable sales within participating stores by ensuring quality, range and freshness of the produce, while promoting their availability locally.

Information on Change4Life is also available at www.nhs.uk/Change4Life  

The project also links in with Five Ways to Wellbeing - a campaign that is going to be launched across the borough later this year to encourage healthy lifestyles for people of all ages.

The council’s Health Improvement team can be contacted on 01706 924187 while Lakeland Grocers provides Change4Life top tips and menus for shoppers.

Councillor Donna Martin, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “These cook and taste sessions are great events that show young people how much fun it can be to make healthy food - and how delicious it tastes.

“There is lots of excellent work going on in schools across the borough to promote a healthy lifestyle and these events are further examples of this.”