Food & Health Alliance

And no wonder – because this is a bus with a difference. In fact it’s an articulated lorry measuring 9.5 metres by 3.5 metres when on the road but once ‘unpacked’ it extends to almost twice that size revealing a fully functioning kitchen classroom ready for the practical cooking sessions that will follow.

The Cooking Bus was launched in 2008 and is funded by the Scottish Government and Food Standards Agency Scotland. Its aim is to teach not only schoolchildren but also teachers, parents and others in the community the importance of cooking as a life skill.

It is all part of the Focus on Food Campaign which began in 1998 with the objective of promoting healthy eating and positive nutrition. This latest bus is the sixth that has been commissioned across the UK but the first for Scotland.

In the last three years the bus has travelled to every part of Scotland, from the Shetland Islands to the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway, reaching a total of 8,664 schoolchildren and 1,354 teachers in 92 primary and secondary schools. It has also made seven community group visits as well as attending a number of high profile events such as the Royal Highland Show.

The visits focus principally on areas of deprivation, explains Programmes Co-ordinator Joanne Johnstone, but the bus has proved so popular that they receive applications from all parts of the country and none are turned down – though the waiting list can be quite lengthy!

Each visit lasts four days. The first day is taken up largely with setting everything up and an ‘open-house session’ where children, parents and teachers can learn more about what is involved. Over the next three days the bus’s two full-time teachers, Susan Blackwell and Jemima Maclean, run a series of hands-on practical cooking sessions on different aspects of preparing and cooking good nutritious food.

These sessions focus principally on basic cooking skills, food safety and hygiene and diet and nutrition, says Joanne, but it is always tailored to the school or community group’s needs. “So if a primary school year is studying China, for instance, they might ask us to include some Chinese recipes.”

The team also runs a session for teachers and community leaders showing them how they can teach these skills themselves and they try to reach the children’s parents: ”If we can help them with basic skills and perhaps persuade them to spend £5 on ingredients to cook with rather than spending it in the local take-away,  then it can make a big difference,” says Joanne.

The team see huge differences in food knowledge and skills in different parts of the country. “In Shetland and the Orkney Islands children were really clued up on fruit and vegetables and they had cooking skills as well. But in some inner city areas, for example, some children can’t even name potatoes and tomatoes and don’t know how to hold a knife and fork.”

One of the most effective ways of educating children’s palates, she finds, is to get them involved in the whole food production process. “If you’ve been involved from the start you’re much more likely to taste and enjoy the finished product.

“Some of these kids are just bowled over by it and sometimes that enthusiasm is catching and starts to infect the parents, who are then eager to get on the Cooking Bus too and learn some practical skills for themselves.

The team distributes recipe cards for each recipe that has been made on the bus to the children at the end of the session. It also donates a set of high quality cooking equipment – called a Cookit – to the host school or community group.

Every visit so far has been met with great enthusiasm from both children and teachers. The delighted head of Pupil Support at Gairloch High School in Ross-shire wrote: “The continuation of the Cooking Bus is essential and so many pupils wanted to stay on board and try and get me to get them out of the lessons that followed. The life skills taught are so more important than a lot of what we teach. I could go on!”

A formal evaluation of the Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus is currently being conducted by NHS Health Scotland and its report is expected towards the end of this year. The project only has funding until next March but Joanne is hopeful it will be renewed.

Contact details:

Joanne@designdimension.org

More information:

www.focusonfood.org