Minister visits Let's Get Cooking

Diana Johnson MP, Under Secretary of State for Schools, joins a group of 96 children and adults in Tower Hamlets today (20 January) as they learn how to cook healthy meals and organise fun cooking events in their community as part of the Let’s Get Cooking programme.

Schools Minister Diana Johnson said: “School dinners have come on leaps and bounds in recent years. School kitchens are no longer churning out turkey twizzlers, but are producing exciting meals that meet rigorous nutritional standards.

“Thanks to the hard work of school dinner staff, along with better guidance on healthy eating and more opportunities for young people to get into cooking, children are now becoming the experts on what’s good to eat. And it’s fantastic to see that mums, dads and communities up and down the country are also joining the healthy eating revolution by getting involved in fantastic schemes like ‘Let’s Get Cooking’.”

David Edwards, Director of Let’s Get Cooking, said: “We are delighted to welcome Diana Johnson to one of our Let's Get Cooking Start-Up Days, where children, young people and adults will all cook together in preparation for the launch of the Let's Get Cooking clubs in each of their schools. As well as developing cooking skills across the generations, club members report that the programme is having a real impact on eating habits with over half of our participants eating healthier food after being involved with a Let's Get Cooking club”.

Let's Get Cooking is a national network of healthy cooking clubs for children and parents, backed by £20 million from the Big Lottery Fund and led by the School Food Trust. Today, sixteen more schools will join the programme, which has signed up over 3,000 schools across England since its launch in October 2007. Within the next 18 months, Let’s Get Cooking 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

During the first two years of Let's Get Cooking, more than 200,000 people have learned new cooking skills, 90% of participants are using these cooking skills at home and 59% of club members have reported eating healthier food (and/or fewer less healthy foods) after taking part in Let's Get Cooking.  The programme has given out over £2 million in grants to more than 2000 schools so far and is exceeding its agreed targets with the Big Lottery Fund. 

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.  

Thanks to the £20 million grant from the Big Lottery Fund, the successful clubs 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.