Thanks to Megan, one of our summer sessional staff who has written about her time working with us here at Edinburgh Community Food 🍓 this summer. Megan spent most of her time working on the Discover! programme, having food fun with families across the city. Read what we get up to at Discover, why it's important for children and families and how Megan found it.

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Over the past 6 weeks, I have been working with the team at Edinburgh Community Food helping to deliver healthy cooking sessions at Discover! hubs.

The Discover! programme is delivered in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and has been running since 2017 to help tackle food poverty during school holidays. Every week, families received a box of fresh produce with recipes and health resources delivered to their house, and at the Discover Hubs families attend healthy cooking sessions with us. 

Read here to learn more about the Discover programme.

What We Did At Discover

This summer, we made 4 different recipes with the families. These were all affordable, simple to make recipes that required no cooking, so they were easy to replicate at home.

In the first week we made some dips to have with toasted pitta bread, sliced pepper and cucumber sticks. These dips were a Salsa and a Pea-camole (a twist on a classic guacamole, made with mashed peas instead of avocado!). This went down a treat, as the kids loved mashing the peas and learning new ways to chop vegetables.

Stages of tasting food! Chop, taste, thumbs up 👍🏿

The next week we made a Rainbow Layered Couscous Salad. Some of the kids hadn’t tried couscous before, so they were really intrigued as to how it tasted and some really liked it. To the couscous we added a variety of different coloured chopped vegetables (like pepper, tomatoes, sweetcorn and spinach), along with a yoghurt chive dressing that they made from scratch. 

Our last recipe was a Potato Salad using tinned potatoes, as these are a cheaper and easy-to-use alternative to regular new potatoes. Some parents said that they wouldn’t know what to do with tinned potatoes, so they found this recipe helpful for meal ideas. For the recipe, we added chives, spring onion and celery for some extra colour, and then made up a separate dressing. This was a mix of plain yoghurt, olive oil, red wine vinegar and mustard. This allowed us to chat about the science of food and creating an emulsion! Some kids loved the taste of the mustard, while some weren’t so keen, but it was great to see so many kids excited to explore new flavours!

Positives From The Programme

👨🏼‍🍳Chopping vegetables was a hit!

One of the biggest takeaways from my time at Discover was how much kids loved getting involved with the food prep. The chopping in particular was a huge hit as they all loved the independence of being able to do the food prep by themselves and learn safe knife skills. A comment I heard a lot was that the chopping was ‘so satisfying!’.

Many of the parents said how happy they were to see their children building their confidence with chopping in safe environment, as it gave them peace of mind that they were building knife skills that they could then use at home. I definitely spotted a few future chefs in the making too!

🌽 Exposure to healthy foods

Repeated exposure to unfamiliar foods like vegetables can make children more willing to try them. Whilst not all of the kids were keen to eat the vegetables during the sessions, this opportunity to explore new foods was a positive first step for many.

One mum told me that her son wouldn’t usually touch vegetables at home, but she was delighted that the cooking sessions have encouraged him to become more curious about them. Every week he was excited to chop new foods and he even tried a bit of sweetcorn, which according to his mum was a huge step forward. It’s always important to celebrate the little wins!

🙌🏼 Making food fun and positive

Building a positive relationship with food is important in the early years of life. As well as learning knife skills and trying new foods, associating healthy foods with positive language is really important for building a healthy relationship with food.

During the sessions, I asked questions that initiated positive conversations around food, like asking what their favourite fruits and vegetables were and why ‘eating the rainbow’ is good for us. 

👨‍👩‍👧 All ages getting involved

From babies to older children, the cooking sessions were a hit with kids of all ages. Babies and toddlers enjoyed tasting foods like yoghurt and sweetcorn, and the older children enjoyed learning food skills like chopping and measuring.

But, it wasn’t just the kids who enjoyed the groups! Numerous parents, and even council staff members, shared that they loved the recipe ideas from the cooking sessions and, using our suggestions, went away and tried their own spin on the recipes at home.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I had a great time working with Edinburgh Community Food at the Discover! hubs. The opportunity to help kids grow in confidence and develop cooking skills that they will carry through their life into adulthood has been truly rewarding.

One of the biggest things I have learned over the past 6 weeks is that kids are open to exploring new foods, whether that’s tasting them, learning about where they come from or learning about how to prepare them. Any opportunity for food discovery is a positive step forward in helping kids eat a wider variety of nutritious foods and become more confident foodies for life!

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 Thank you to Megan, Eleanor and Louise who helped with our Discover! work this summer ☀