Tewkesbury schools say ‘Count Me In!’ to Let’s Get Cooking
Four new Tewkesbury schools have received funding from the Count Me In! programme to join Let’s Get Cooking, a national network of healthy cooking clubs for children and parents, backed by £20 million from the Big Lottery Fund.
A group of local children and adults met at Tewkesbury School and started cooking and to learn how to organise fun cooking events within their own community.
By 2010, Let’s Get Cooking, led by the School Food Trust, will have signed up 5,000 school-based cooking clubs, in a bid to teach new cooking skills to more than one million children, family and community members. Today’s new clubs are among the first in a national roll-out programme, which has seen 2,000 schools across England join the scheme within its first 18 months.
All primary and secondary schools in Gloucestershire were invited to sign up to Let’s Get 
Cooking via its website on a first-come-first-served basis. Places were so popular that the Count Me In! programme provided additional funding to allow more schools to take part.
Count Me In! is the Healthy Towns project for Tewkesbury. It is a Government-funded programme of events and activities which aim to increase residents’ understanding of Food & Nutrition, The Environment and Physical Activity – to help them live a happy, healthy life in a clean environment.
The successful clubs will receive funding to buy cooking equipment, on-going advice and support from regional Let’s Get Cooking specialists and have access to free training and a range of resources. The Big Lottery Fund’s Well-being programme provides funding to support the development of healthier lifestyles and to improve well-being.
Natalie Greenslade, Regional Club Co-ordinator for Let’s Get Cooking, said: “It’s brilliant that Tewkesbury schools are so keen to get cooking and we are delighted that so many local schools signed up so quickly. Today is their Start-Up day, which is the final of three training events we run for all our new clubs, and gets children, young people and adults from these new clubs cooking together for the first time.
“After today, they will be ready to begin their own club sessions, involving lots of practical cooking and great fun events for the whole school, parents and the wider community. As their regional team, we give them plenty of ideas and inspiration and these, along with the huge range of Let’s Get Cooking opportunities and resources, guarantees them an exciting time ahead.”
Mainly held outside school hours, Let’s Get Cooking clubs give children and non-cooking parents of all ages the skills and confidence to cook nutritious and tasty meals from scratch. The network of clubs complements the recent re-introduction of practical cooking onto the curriculum for secondary school pupils, as they also involve the wider community and encourage children and young people to cook at home and eat a healthy balanced diet.
For more information about Let’s Get Cooking visit www.letsgetcooking.org.uk