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‘Get the healthy eating basics right and the rest will follow’: The project helping youngsters eat well on a budget

Joanna Tweedy Expert's view, Uncategorized

A town-wide project that’s helping to teach young people how to cook healthy food on a budget – with minimum waste – is featured in a new YouTube film. And the stars of it are hoping to reach a million views.

Social enterprise the Green Dreams Project CIC, run by Dr James Fleming, works with Year 6 students (aged ten and eleven) in the Lancashire town of Padiham.

Run by the Padiham Medical Centre, as part of the ‘Born in the Community’ programme, the project sees students cooking healthy food and learning about the myths and truths surrounding food and exercise.

Myth busters, from a primary school in Padiham, Lancashire, explain in a new YouTube film truths and lies about healthy eating

The film, which features the Edible Explorers programme, run by Laura Sumner who visits Year 6 children at all the primary schools in Padiham, sees some of those involved showing what they’ve learned including cookery on a budget, reducing food waste, and being encouraged to cook and eat with their families.

The Year 6 children have been cooking their own healthy food under the tuition of Laura Sumner, who runs the Edible Explorers programme
Hands on: The pupils get to try their hand at creating dishes that are good for them
Dr James Fleming, of Padiham Medical Centre runs social enterprise the Green Dreams Project CIC, which includes Edible Explorers

‘Born in the Community’ also includes a partnership with Pennine Community Farms in Burnley which teaches children how to grow food by putting a gardener in the school.

As a result the schools are producing considerable volumes of food, says Dr Fleming, who adds that the project’s aim is to teach children ‘the basics’ on healthy eating, to give them a foundation they can then go on to build on.