Nursery World - Nursery Food: Working with Parents

Running cookery classes for parents and carers is one way that
nurseries can help promote healthy eating beyond the setting. Charlotte
Goddard reports.

The UK has one of the highest levels of childhood obesity in Europe, with 23 per cent of under-fives overweight or obese, according to a Leeds Beckett University study. One way in which nurseries can help to tackle obesity and improve children's health is by running cookery classes for parents and carers.

'Early years settings have often got kitchens, and parents coming in on a regular basis,' says Laura Whiting, nutritionist at the Children's Food Trust. 'Children's centres are particularly suitable since their remit is to support families.' The Children's Food Trust runs training sessions for early years settings to help them deliver cooking classes to parents. Initially subsidised by Government grants, the sessions are now paid for by local authorities.

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