Wiltshire Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) 2021

2nd Sep 2021Dr Jennie Cockroft

Over the past 4 weeks the Purely Nutrition team have been involved in the Holiday Activities and Food Programme 2021 across 10 venues in Wiltshire initiated by the Department of Education. It was run in partnership with Wiltshire County Council, Active Wiltshire, Learn By Design, The Occasional Kitchen and Purely Nutrition. This was a really fun and hands on way to provide enriching activities and food preparation sessions to encourage a healthier lifestyle for children.

Each week the Purely Nutrition team delivered a different session around one of our core messages. We covered Bag a Breakfast, Eatwell, Strive for 5 and Drain your drinks. These contained fun arts and crafts, investigation activities and exciting food preparation to broaden the children’s knowledge of health and nutrition. The feedback from children was fantastic and the children were so proud of what they had made.

Supporting this programme has enabled children to eat more healthily over the school holidays and build their confidence around trying new foods. Witnessing the amount of children who have tried new foods, especially fruits and vegetables over the summer has made being involved in this programme so rewarding. The workshops were also accompanied by virtual cook along sessions for parents and families so they could join in on the fun with their children.

Below is a brief overview of what the children experienced:

Week 1 was Bag a Breakfast which involved learning about the importance of breakfast and making a healthy supercrunch of fruit, yoghurt and rice crispies. This was very successful amongst the children as 65% said they liked it and would make it again for breakfast at home.

Week 2 was based on Eating Well where they saw and talked about the Eatwell guide, the different food groups and how these make up a balanced diet. This was followed up with making tasty tortilla wrap pizzas with lots of veggies!

In Week 3 they learnt about Strive for 5, the importance of eating 5 a day and the ‘Eat a Rainbow’ message. The arts and crafts were a huge success which was followed by making colourful fruit kebabs.

To finish, Week 4 was Drain Your Drinks. We discussed hydration and how much sugar is in their favourite drinks as well as how and why we should reduce this. As an alternative to sugary drinks, fruity flavoured water was made and many children made extra to drink throughout the rest of the day!

I think it’s safe to say that everyone had a fun filled summer and learnt some tips and tricks for a healthier lifestyle!

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