Local charity The Friendly Food Club joined forces with Dorset Council’s Artz+ Sportz+ initiative to provide free food activities to hundreds of families over the Christmas holidays.
The action took place at Monkey World and enabled youngsters to enjoy a day of creative, food-related sessions at the ape rescue centre. Designed for families with children and young people with a disability, the event was also part of the Council’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme – offering free activities and delicious food to children in receipt of free school meals.
Thanks to funding from The Hendy Foundation, cooking tutors Andria and Mark, and volunteer Debbie helped young people of all ages go bananas with their festive fruit recipe! Providing plenty of Christmas cake decorations helped the delectable dessert go down a treat.
Mark Heath, Project Coordinator and Tutor explained: “We want everyone to enjoy a positive connection with food – having fun together in the kitchen is one way of building young peoples’ confidence with handling and preparing healthy foods.”
The cooking fun didn’t finish there – the charity also gave out over 130 gingerbread biscuit baking kits to take home to create with their families, encouraging young people to keep cooking. Meaning there are now hundreds of gingerbread people running around Dorset!
As well as festive baking activities The Friendly Food Club teach healthy cooking skills to thousands of children every year through the Dorset Council and BCP Council’s HAF schemes. All across Dorset children are being equipped to create healthy meals with confidence in the kitchen.
Find out more about The Friendly Food Club at: https://www.thefriendlyfoodclub.org/