07 Feb 2020 Cooking and Company Champions trained as part of healthy eating and social inclusion project
Six ‘Cooking and Company’ Champions have now been trained as part of our BUPA-funded healthy eating and social inclusion project for elderly male carers, delivered in partnership with the Liverpool Carers Centre
The ‘Cooking and Company’ project is a BUPA-funded programme, involving a cohort of elderly male carers attending weekly cooking sessions to learn about the basics of healthy eating, food skills (meal planning, batch cooking and budgeting) and how to cook a range of healthy and nutritious breakfasts. The project is also an opportunity for carers to have break from the caring duty and engage with others experiencing similar challenges/ others being in familiar circumstances over a tasty and nutritious meal that they have prepared and cooked together.
The project was launched by Food Active and the Liverpool Carers Centre (as part of Local Solutions) in May 2019, including four six-week cooking programmes for elderly male carers which came to a close in December 2019. The feedback from the sessions have been fantastic, with the men enjoying the opportunity to try new foods, find out more about healthy eating and have the opportunity to make new friends.
To ensure the longevity of the project, Food Active developed and delivered two half-day train-the-trainer course involving staff at the Liverpool Carers Centre and one of the carers who was involved in the course on 29.1.20 and 6.2.20. The two days included all the nutrition and health topics covered in the sessions, as well as top tips on food skills in the kitchen. The second day of the training ran through the resource booklet to support the programme, the faciliators pack, tips on delivery, conversation starters etc. and finally a practice run session, whereby attendees made one of the recipes in the six week course – a delicious and healthy tomato and lentil soup. All staff attended the two day course, and are now fully qualified Cooking and Company Champions who can continue to deliver the sessions and engage with even more male carers across the city, with sessions already planned over the next coming months.
As part of the bid, Food Active will also be developing an online toolkit containing lots of useful information about healthy eating and cooking tips for older carers and will be published in Summer 2020 when the project comes to a close.
If you would like to find out more about the project, please email info@foodactive.org.uk
