20 May 2025 Good Food for the Holiday’s training: Edsential case study
Food Active has been offering the Good Food for the Holidays training for HAF providers since the inception of the programme nationally in 2021. The training has been delivered in over 10 localities, to over 600 providers, and aims to upskill staff and volunteers to ensure they offer healthy, nutritious and delicious food that meets the required school food standards. In this case study, we hear from Diane Penn, PE and Sports Specialist at Edsential, to share how attending the training has helped to improve their food offer and deliver enriching food and nutrition activities to children attending their provision across Cheshire West and Chester.
How has attending the Good Food for the Holidays training impacted on your provision? What changes have you made to your food offer and food and nutrition activities as a result of attending the training?
As a result of attending the Good Food for the Holiday’s training, I liaised much closer with my food provider to make sure that the food provided was meeting the school food standards, and to give new ideas of what we could do – even with cold food. The location of our HAF at the leisure centre meant it was very difficult to provide hot food so we went for a cold option. The food provided was a very good standard with the correct balance of food groups and a variety of food choices over the week. An example of lunch was a wholemeal tuna roll, cut up cucumber/carrot sticks, different fruit and yoghurt choices, or cheese and crackers and water. Daily selection of snacks included strawberries, pineapple, grapes, oranges, kiwi, apple, watermelon, bananas, carrot and cucumber, plus water. We went with more wholemeal choices than previously and provided a wide selection of chopped fruit for the snack, which were both hugely popular with the children.
For the nutrition activity, we provided the children with workshops focusing on healthy eating. Using the Eatwell guide, the children made their own healthy plates and had lots of discussion about healthier choices. We focused on the amount of sugar in different products and looked at making healthier swaps to products with less sugar. They really enjoyed looking at the amount of sugar in different drinks.
What would be your top tip to offer healthy and nutritious food at HAF?
Cut up fruit and vegetables (carrots/cucumber) for snacks, and provide a wide variety in a range of colours. It was amazing how much the children ate and how willing even reluctant, fussy eaters were to try it because their peers were.
To find out more about Food Active’s HAF training and tools, please click here. Alternatively, to speak to one of the team, please email chloe.higham-smith@heg.org.uk.
