Granton Primary School: from plot to plate!

Granton Primary School launched a new cooking club last week as part of the Food for Thought programme. Children made their own bread and butter and made their very own delicious minestrone soup!

Food for Thought – Programme Manager Vivian Maeda explained: “Granton is one of the 136 schools which have been successful in the Food for Thought Programme, a three way partnership between Scottish Government, Education Scotland and Business In The Ccommunity Scotland, to support schools with their food education.

“Among the range of activities are cooking, growing, farm visits, careers in food and drink, work experience and interdisciplinary learning projects – using food as a vehicle to learn other subjects: food and sports, food and history.

“Granton’s project is to grow food and develop a cooking habit amongst children by launching a cooking club. 

“To celebrate the many activities to come, we invited Chef Rosario from Locanda de Gusti, Charlie from Breadshare, Tom from Granton Community Growing and professional storyteller Mrs Mash to attend the launch and cook everything from scratch with the children (P3-P7) and their parents.

“Children made minestrone soup with Chef Rosario, fresh bread with Charlie and Tom using wheat harvested at the Granton Community Garden and Mrs Mash made butter from scratch.  The excitement in the room showed how beneficial it is to introduce such sessions in the school.

“Food for Thought is aiming to improve healthy eating habits, show children where food comes from and make children appreciate what goes behind each meal we eat. One third of Scottish children are overweight or obese: many don’t know how to cook or where food comes from, but we can change that. If we want a healthier nation, there is no doubt that practical cooking plays a huge role in that.”

Granton Primary class teacher Rosemary Taylor said: “The first session was a great success, with eleven children and some of their parents joining in the fun of cooking, eating, singing and sharing! The children really enjoyed the activities and we are all looking forward to our next session.”

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