Food Education
For children hungry to learn
We know that getting children engaged with food at an early age helps them make better food choices. By improving accessibility and changing a generation’s attitude to food we can begin to combat health inequalities.
Table Talk Foundation work with Adopt a School Trust, an established charity who bring chefs into schools to help children develop healthy eating habits, an enthusiasm and interest in food, and an insight into the hospitality industry, all from within the classroom!
IN THE classroom
In 2022, we sponsored our full time Chef John to deliver the Adopt a School programme across Sussex. We have now worked with over 45 schools and holiday clubs. That is over 1500 children!
The programme is made up of 4 x 1 hour sessions that can be delivered directly from the classroom with no special equipment.
- Taste and Sensory: encourages children to familiarise themselves with food through seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting, before identifying the four tastes. Provenance and healthy eating is the key message.
- Practical: identifying different fruits and vegetables, where they come from and how they are grown. Children are taught knife skills and make a meal together.
- Bread making: find out where bread comes from, how wheat is grown, harvested and milled into flour before making their own dough! Children take the proved dough home to bake with their families.
- Front of House: learn how to use a knife and fork correctly, how to set a table and participate in role-play activities set within “a restaurant”. This enhances confidence and aspirations by enabling children to see the value of good presentation, communication and social skills, as well as recognising the importance of sitting down and enjoying food together.
on the farm
In March 2023, Table Talk Foundation and Adopt a School partnered to fund and launch our own Training Kitchen and run Chef on the Farm sessions. This additional session is a full day trip.
Sitting on the grounds of Plumpton College, children explore the farm and dairy with our Table Talk Farmers and see exactly where their food comes from. Our brilliant Chefs then deliver a practical cookery session based on local and seasonal produce. The kitchen allows children to learn in an environment that can really inspire them and let them get their hands messy! Finally, all the children sit down together to share their meal.
Know the facts...
Obesity is responsible for more than 30,000 deaths each year in the UK.
By the time children finish primary school 1 in 3 are overweight or obese, with one in five children obese.
Childhood obesity levels have more than doubled in the last 10 years.