Frequently asked questions

What is Let's Get Cooking?

Let’s Get Cooking is a national network of cooking clubs aiming to help children, young people, parents and the wider community learn to cook ‘good food that is good for you’.  It is setting up a network of 5,000 cooking clubs across England over five years – that’s 3,000 new clubs and 2,000 existing clubs, which can join as associate clubs.

Who runs Let’s Get Cooking?

The project is led by the School Food Trust, in partnership with the Prince’s Trust, Business in the Community, The Improvement Foundation, Magic Outcomes, The British Nutrition Foundation and the Royal Society for Health.

How is the project funded?

Setting up Let’s Get Cooking's first 5,000 clubs is funded by £20 million from the Big Lottery Fund.  This provides funding to help new cooking clubs get started and to help with running costs

What are the aims of Let’s Get Cooking?

Let’s Get Cooking has three key aims:

1) by the end of the five-year programme 1,106,300 children, family members and members of the local community will increase their food preparation or cooking skills as a result of Let’s Get Cooking
2) 70% of participants who learn a new healthy eating skill through Let’s Get Cooking will replicate that skill at home
3) 50% of children, young people and families who participate in Let’s Get Cooking will increase their intake of nutritionally healthy food.

How are all the partners working together?

• The School Food Trust is setting up 5,000 school-based Let’s Get Cooking clubs. This project aims to help 1.1 million children, young people, their families and the wider community learn new cooking skills and eat ‘good food that is good for you’.
• Healthy Eating through xl, led by The Prince’s Trust, is engaging more than 7,000 young people on a two-year healthy eating programme within their existing xl clubs over five years.
• Engaging Companies, led by Business in the Community, is bringing in 100 cross-sector companies and 18,000 of their staff to create employee volunteering opportunities to support the Let’s Get Cooking clubs.
• Everyone’s Cooking, led by the Improvement Foundation, will support cooking clubs in disadvantaged communities, identified through the indices of multiple deprivation.
• Supporting School Leadership, led by Magic Outcomes, is facilitating school food vision development programmes in primary schools from some of the most deprived areas in London and Yorkshire.
• The Royal Society of Health and British Nutrition Foundation have been involved in an advisory capacity.
  

How does it work in practice?

When Let's Get Cooking ‘arrives’ in an area, local schools receive an invitation to apply for membership. Once they receive confirmation of their place, new clubs attend an Introductory Session (lasting two to three hours) followed by a two-day Demonstrator Training course and a Start-Up day in their area. These events help new clubs to understand the philosophy behind Let’s Get Cooking and provide inspiration and practical ideas for their club. (See also How do schools register to take part?)

After the Start-Up Day, clubs can recruit their first group of children and family members and start cooking. Let's Get Cooking is not just an after-school club.  Clubs hold sessions to teach cooking skills and run food and cooking activities at school and community events, mainly outside of school hours. Let's Get Cooking provides many ideas, resources and recipes to inspire ‘foodie’ activities that will become a normal part of the school and community calendar and help clubs develop new and original ideas.

Each club has a leadership team. The Club Coordinator organises activities with club members and at least one or two more adults will be Club Demonstrators or helpers. Adult and pupil club members are encouraged to play a key part in decision-making.

Each club should have the support of its headteacher who signs the Let's Get Cooking agreement and ensures the club follows the guidelines. The club must comply with the school’s health and safety policy, code of behaviour, police clearance procedures, insurance and finance policies.

Let’s Get Cooking allows schools the flexibility they need to make their club successful. ‘Success’ means involving as many children, families and community members cooking together and learning new cooking skills as possible. Our pilot clubs have run in a variety of ways:

• an after-school activity where parents and children cook together
• a school-based club for children to learn new cooking skills. Recipes are taken home and parents are invited to special events (such as picnics, barbecues or group meals) where they cook and eat together or take food home to eat. The Let's Get Cooking club members also prepare and serve food at special events such as parents’ meetings and sports days. Recipes are given to everyone attending.
• the Breakfast Club, Holiday Club or After-school Club (part of Extended Schools services) incorporates a Let's Get Cooking club as one of its regular activities and involves families and community members as outlined above
• all children in school regularly cook as part of the curriculum and parents are involved in cooking activities during school time. The Let’s Get Cooking Club builds on skills learnt in school time and members organise special events out of school hours at which they prepare, serve and share food.
  

How do schools apply to take part?

During the first three years of the programme, (2007 to 2010), Let's Get Cooking is writing to every school in England to invite them to apply to join Let’s Get Cooking.

New clubs are recruited in small geographical clusters, so that they can build up a local network and attend nearby training events.  Every six months Let's Get Cooking signs up around 450 schools (50 from each region) by inviting every school in selected local authorities to apply to join via the Let's Get Cooking website at a certain date and time. Details are provided in the invitation letter.

Let's Get Cooking has consulted with regional food and health professionals, such as Healthy Schools Coordinators, Extended Schools and other local contacts, to establish the order in which each local authority is approached.  Look at the Club Recruitment timetable to see when Let's Get Cooking is coming to your area and how many club places have been allocated.

Register your interest and you will receive an email a couple of weeks before Let's Get Cooking writes to schools in your local authority, so you can ask your headteacher to look out for the invitation letter.

If you already have a cooking club at your school, you can apply now to join Let's Get Cooking as an associate club.  Click here to find out more.

How often does the club have to meet?

The club must sign the agreement to confirm that it will meet a minimum of 15 times per year.

The club will hold at least 12 club meetings per year, which will involve preparing food and learning about food and cooking.  After each meeting, they must complete a brief online activity report.

In addition, the club must hold at least three events or sessions per year involving the wider community in cooking activities.  For example, parents, family members, other pupils and/or local community groups or businesses may take part in a picnic, group meal or prepare food at a parents’ evening.

In order for the club to be sustainable for a minimum of three years, it is recommended that clubs ideally meet around 18 times per year and hold at least three community events each year.

Examples :

• hold one, six-week ‘block’ each term, with three different groups learning six recipes.  At the end of each block, invite parents, family members or the rest of the school to join in an event, where they help with food preparation and eat together
• hold one, three-week block each half-term (with six different groups over the year) and involve Let's Get Cooking members in preparing food at one whole-school event each term such as parents’ evening or Red Nose Day
• each activity resource pack, sent to clubs each term, will contain recipes and suggestions for involving the wider community in special events. 
  

When and where is Let's Get Cooking happening?

Over the first three years of the programme, (2007 to 2010), Let's Get Cooking is writing to every school in every local authority across England.

Clubs are invited to join in geographical clusters, so that they can establish a local network, attend events, share best practice and allow the Let’s Get Cooking regional staff to work closely with clubs.

Schools are invited in waves by local authority, with two recruitment waves in each region per year (usually in November and June). 

Look at the Club Recruitment Timetable to see when Let's Get Cooking is visiting your local authority and how many places have been allocated to each area.   

Can existing cooking clubs get involved in Let’s Get Cooking?

Existing cookery clubs join Let’s Get Cooking as associate members, enabling them to also become part of this national movement.

Associate clubs receive the same practical resources as new clubs as well as £400 funding in the first year and £100 in the second year. They must complete brief, online reports in the same way as new clubs (see How much paperwork will clubs have to do?) Associate clubs do not attend Let's Get Cooking training events.

Click here to find out more about associate clubs.

How will I know if I qualify as a new or associate club?

When you  apply to join Let's Get Cooking via its website, you are asked whether or not your school has an existing cooking club.  This is defined as, “An extra-curricular, school-based group, which meets on a regular basis to prepare and cook food, led by an adult that is competent to teach children to prepare and cook food.”

If you don’t have a cooking club, you will be eligible to apply as a new club and you will be asked to input your invitation code (provided on your invitation letter). 

If you do have a cooking club, then you will be asked a few more questions about your club and you will be notified as to whether or not your application to become an associate club is successful. Please note: if you provide false information you could be asked to return any funding at a later date.

What funding and support do Let’s Get Cooking clubs receive?

Financial support:

New clubs receive a total of £2,500 over three years (£500 to buy cookery equipment and £500 for running costs in the first year, £1,000 in the second year and £500 in the third year). The funds can be used for running costs such as ingredients, publicity, supply cover, training or travel. In order to qualify for funding for subsequent years, clubs must provide brief online activity reports (see How much paperwork will clubs have to do?). Associate clubs receive £500.  After three years, the aim is that Let's Get Cooking clubs will have become self-sustaining. Advice and guidance on linking up with local businesses and organisations to help clubs achieve this, is provided.

Training:

Two adults (Club Demonstrators) from each school are invited to a free two-day Demonstrator Training course to learn about food safety, hygiene and cookery demonstration techniques, to enable them to show club members how to make a range of recipes, which they can then replicate at home (new clubs only).

Up to six adults and children from each club attend a Start-Up Day, where they start cooking and learn about how Let's Get Cooking works.  

Resources:

Each club receives a free Start-Up pack containing lots of useful resources such as wallcharts, safety advice, template letters to parents and samples of available merchandise such as badges, stickers, certificates, and more.

Each term, clubs receive a newsletter and free activity pack providing recipes and inspiration for cooking activities and events, such as a community tea party, sports day or religious festival.

Each club has access to the password-protected club zone of the Let’s Get Cooking website. Here they share tips, download further resources, and set up their own private club web page for all members to add photos, recipes and cooking tips. The website provides extra materials such as child-friendly versions of recipes, shopping lists and event planners. More new resources are added frequently.

Reduced cost cooking equipment

Let's Get Cooking is talking to manufacturers of cooking equipment to obtain
cut-price cooking equipment for clubs.

Support

Each region has a Regional Club Coordinator and a Regional Training Officer who run the events and training, and provide advice and support as needed.

Networking

Let’s Get Cooking clubs are recruited in local clusters so that they can link up and work together.  They meet each other at the Introductory Sessions, Demonstrator Training and Start-Up Day.  In some regions, secondary schools have made their food technology facilities available to local primary schools that do not have specialist cooking facilities.

A bank of volunteers

Let's Get Cooking has a bank of volunteers in each region who can offer clubs extra adult help, either regularly, on a rota basis or for special events (subject to availability).

How does Let’s Get Cooking benefit schools, children, young people and the wider community?

Valuable life skills:

Learning to cook ‘good food that is good for you’ gives club members the knowledge, experience and practical skills to enable them to cook food for themselves, friends and families.

Cooking is a great way of developing social and personal skills; many clubs have reported improved behaviour and confidence in students.  As they become involved in making decisions about club activities, serving food at events and using their cooking skills, club members gain confidence and enterprise skills. They develop a sense of responsibility and team work.

Contribute to school aims

Most schools are working towards improving food provision and teaching pupils how to adopt healthier lifestyles. Let's Get Cooking:

• helps schools meet the requirements of the government's Every Child Matters agenda.
• contributes to schools gaining or maintaining Healthy School Accreditation
• provides further evidence of fulfilling the requirements of the Self Evaluation Form (particularly Section 4: ‘To what extent do learners adopt healthy lifestyles?’ and Sections 3a, 7b and 7c.)
• provides further material for School Profiles (How do we make sure our pupils are healthy, safe and well-supported? What activities are available to pupils? How are we working with parents and the community?)
• adds to Extended Schools services and activities
• complements Licence to Cook and compulsory curriculum cooking. A Let’s Get Cooking club can support the new curriculum requirement to give all secondary school pupils the opportunity to learn to cook
• complements curriculum activities such as science, PSHCE, and design and technology and food technology programmes of study.

Increased parent engagement

Let’s Get Cooking encourages family engagement in the school in a way which is fun, non-threatening and useful. This reinforces and supports the healthy eating messages to students. Let’s Get Cooking is enormously popular as an activity which parents, carers and children enjoy together.

Connections with the local community

Let’s Get Cooking is about cooking in the community. Increased community involvement connects students with a diverse range of people and helps the school open up all kinds of new opportunities for events and activities.

How much paperwork will clubs have to do?

Let's Get Cooking wants club members to cook rather than complete paperwork, so reporting requirements are minimal, yet essential for auditing how the Big Lottery Fund money is being spent.

Each club has its own website, which is easy to set up and maintain. Instructions are provided in the Let's Get Cooking Start-Up pack ring binder and new Club Coordinators are shown how to do this at the training days.

To qualify for continued funding, clubs complete a minimum of 15, simple, online reports per year, providing brief details of what they’ve been cooking at their 12 club meetings and how families and the wider community have been involved in the three community events.

Some clubs might  use the website for reporting only, but there is also the option to build a club website, adding recipes, photos, dates for meetings and events, which all club members can access via a password. Club leaders may delegate this task to a volunteer or responsible club member.

There will not be a long, annual report to complete. However, there will be some extra paperwork for clubs which have agreed to become one of the schools in the smaller sample study. (There are about 300 schools taking part in a more indepth research study).

Schools are expected to maintain their own records of expenditure and complete a short online report of how funds have been spent.  A random sample of clubs will be audited and asked to provide financial statements/receipts to Let's Get Cooking head office.

Can schools apply to have a club if we don’t have a kitchen?

Yes. Schools are renowned for having plenty of resourceful people who can adapt rooms for different purposes. If you become a Let's Get Cooking club, you will receive funding which you can spend on cooking equipment and help with running costs. All the activity packs contain ideas for non-cook recipes so that you can get cooking even if you do not have a cooker!  During the training for new clubs, you are introduced to a range of table-top cookers, which can be set up anywhere with a power supply.

Can independent schools apply to join Let’s Get Cooking?

Sorry, Let’s Get Cooking is not open to independent schools.

How do I volunteer to help a Let's Get Cooking club?

If you are an adult who is interested in being involved with a cooking club, you could start talking to your local headteacher. Adults working with children usually require Criminal Records Bureau clearance or need to work with someone who has. Check with your headteacher.

Each club will need at least two helpers or cooking demonstrators.  These are likely to be parents, grandparents, governors, teachers, teaching assistants, school cooks, sixth formers, local chefs, business people or friends of the school. Clubs might ask volunteers either to help with the club sessions regularly, or on a rota basis, to demonstrate more advanced skills, to assist at special events or maybe to help with routine but very important tasks such as the shopping or washing tea towels.

If you don't know any nearby schools you can register your interest and Let's Get Cooking will put you in touch with schools looking for volunteers.  Please note, there is no guarantee that you will be matched up with a school. 

Our school is signed up to the Food for Life Partnership scheme. Can we still join Let's Get Cooking?

Let’s Get Cooking and The Food for Life Partnership are both five-year programmes funded by the BIG Lottery Fund’s Well Being Fund.

The programmes are working together to ensure that the Lottery funding reaches as many people as possible.  As both programmes are delivered through schools across England, it is essential that schools receive funding from only one of the schemes. 

If your school is a Food for Life Partnership Flagship school you won't be eligible to apply for funding from Let's Get Cooking but you could join as a non-funded, associate member. 

Click here to find out more about how the Food for Life Partnership and Let's Get Cooking are working together.

I am a health or food professional. How can I get Let's Get Cooking clubs happening in my area?

Let's Get Cooking taps into the wealth of knowledge in each region. It consults local contacts such as Healthy Schools Coordinators, Extended Schools Coordinators and other food and health professionals, when recruiting schools from each local authority.

If you would like to be kept informed of the progress of Let's Get Cooking, please register your interest and you will be sent regular email updates.

I have a business or cookery school and would like to get involved with Let's Get Cooking. How can I do this?

Complete the Register your interest form and Let's Get Cooking will contact you when it comes to your area. Let's Get Cooking is always delighted to hear from anyone wanting to offer support.

I work at an FE or HE college and am interested in becoming involved in Let's Get Cooking.

Let’s Get Cooking clubs are for children and young people aged between five and 18. They need plenty of help and support.

Volunteers could help run or assist local clubs, either on a regular basis or occasionally at special events.  If you have facilities where clubs can hold Let's Get Cooking events,  please register your interest and you will be contacted when Let's Get Cooking comes to your area.