Cooking for under 5s and their families in Shortstown

Close to the landmark Cardington hangars and with a rich RAF and aviation history, Shortstown is a village in Bedford Borough. As bus transport into Bedford can be irregular and costly, Food etc’s funding partner, Bedford Giving, identified the village as a priority area for organised family activities.

“The Bedford Giving parent panel saw Kinder Kitchen (Food etc’s cookery workshops for children under 5 and their parents or carers) as a fun way for families to cook together while learning about nutrition and healthy food choices. Kinder Kitchen’s focus on making healthy alternatives to some of the processed favourites caught the panel’s attention,” explains Keith Johnson, Bedford Giving’s panel facilitator.

“We decided to use the opportunity to test the viability of signing up families by open invitation as well as doing it through a partner organisation such as a nursery or a school,” notes Julie Clay, Food etc founder and director.

The experiment worked. Advertising through local nurseries and Food etc’s social media platforms saw 6 families signing up for Kinder Kitchen at the Shortstown Village Hall where, over a period of six weeks, they cooked cheese and leek scones, pizza, soup and bread, tuna fishcakes, different salads and healthy snacks. The children – all aged between 3 and 4 – tried new fruits, vegetables and dishes, often surprising their parents with their willingness to taste the unfamiliar.

In fact the course was so successful that it was covered by the BBC!

Ryan, who attended with his daughter, said he signed up to spend more time with Jasmine (3) and to learn about food together. “I discovered you can make healthy food from scratch with not that many ingredients and that it doesn’t have to take long and is not hard to do.”

Three-year-old Harry is a restricted, fussy eater according to mum Rosie. “The course was good exposure to different foods and making it fun and enjoyable. At home he gets upset when you try to offer him new foods. Even if he didn’t end up eating all the food here, it’s a good process for him to do.”

For dad Vince and daughter Letti (3), the course was an opportunity to bond over something that didn’t involve the other two members of the household. Said Vince, “I’ve enjoyed giving Letti food that we wouldn’t normally give her. I think because she was involved in making everything, she definitely enjoyed it more than if we just stuck the food in front of her.”

Letti’s mum Tiffiny wrote in an email to the Food etc team that “Letti and Vince will miss coming to the classes. They have thoroughly enjoyed it. Letti has experienced lots and has taken so much pride in her achievements. It has helped both my kids try new things and may have even given them a cooking/baking spark as they baked cookies and biscuits this weekend together.”

Food etc followed the success of the Village Hall course of two further courses in Shortstown, one at the village’s pre-school and the other at the primary school.