Steyning pupils take part in ‘Food Revolution Day’

On this day there were 237,822 participants taking part through 7086 different events around the globe covering 121 countries.

They all tuned into Jamie Oliver’s live cooking event to celebrate good vegetables, to shout about the importance of food education and cooking skills, and at the same time together smashed the world Guinness Record for the world’s biggest ever cooking lesson.

Food Revolution Day is an annual global day of action that celebrates good, fresh, real food. It’s a day to shout about the benefits of cooking from scratch and, ultimately, to show people that not only is fresh food tastier, it can also make them healthier and happier.

Jamie Oliver explained that educating children about food, whether that’s learning how to cook from scratch, finding out where their food comes from, knowing what’s in season or understanding how it affects their bodies, will set them up for life.

This year Food Revolution Day is, above all, about getting children excited about food. It’s our duty to ensure that the next generation grow up armed with the knowledge and skills they need to make good lifestyle choices. It’s our responsibility to ensure they grow up food smart.

As part of the live cooking event the students all learnt how to make a tasty rainbow salad wrap with ingredients such as carrots, beetroot, white cabbage, mint, parsley, feta cheese, natural yoghurt, English mustard, vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and a wholemeal tortilla wrap.

Students enjoyed learning about carrots which are full of vitamin A, how beetroot is the ‘Super Hero’ of root vegetables and packed full of folic acid and how to make a beautiful salad dressing. They all had fun dressing the salad and were encouraged to get their fingers into the salad to make sure everything was covered in the dressing. Jamie got the audience to crumble the feta cheese from a height to give them their ‘Rainbow Wrap’. I think the most fun was had with the beetroot which gave the students purple hands and definitely proved that it was all about hand held food!

Ryan King, a Steyning Grammar School student, Aged 11 said “ I have not made any food like this before, I think its very good and possibly going to inspire me to make more food like this in the future.”

Mrs Michelle Stokes, Steyning Grammar School, Religious Education Teacher and organiser of the event said: “I was really keen for some of our pupils to take part in this event. The focus of educating young people to enjoy cooking from scratch is one that I feel very passionate about. The Jamie Oliver Foundation published several facts about young people and cooking, one was ‘that children who learn to cook are more confident about the importance of making healthy food choices.

“In our fast food society I felt this was a vital skill with which to equip our young people. By taking part in something that is exciting and a world record breaking event I am hoping our pupils will continue to view healthy eating as a positive thing to do.”

Report and pictures contributed by Steyning Grammar School.