The Food Hour – learning about food, learning through food and sharing nutritious food
Food Sense Wales is delighted to be part of a new pilot project called The Food Hour that’s being led by Cardiff Council in collaboration with Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Nutrition and Dietetic Services. Funded by the Welsh Government’s Foundational Economy Innovation fund, the project aims to create a nation of good food citizens by dedicating one Food Hour per school day for all children.
The Food Hour pilot will provide children in primary schools in Cardiff with the opportunity to spend at least one hour each school day learning about food, learning through food and sharing nutritious food.
The Food Hour is designed to make the most of the skills, relationships and investments within the existing and evolving school food ecosystem, spanning from farm to fork, and from the school setting to the home environment.
The project will include forming a working group; establishing a cost-effective provision model; testing the provision in up to six primary schools; building a case for this approach while also considering its impact on society.
The Food Hour’s approach is a simple one and builds on resources, programmes and human capital that already exist in Wales. During the pilot, the project partnership will:
- Co-design and deliver a Food Hour training programme for school and catering staff (up to 50 staff members in Cardiff) building on existing resources and programmes and in social partnership e.g. with school food suppliers.
- Co-design a Food Hour education package for Foundation Phase (up to 1000 children) to be delivered by trained staff in schools and supplemented with external resources and activities such as Nutrition Skills for Life, Veg Power, Size of Wales etc.
- Test the potential to empower year 6 students to deliver key messages to Foundation Phase pupils, building on peer to peer education principles.
- Build on home – school engagement through activities such as take-home recipe bags (successfully piloted in Food and Fun), training opportunities for parents and the “Eat the Rainbow” Veg Power programme in conjunction with Aardman Animation.
Wales has the capacity to create a nation of good food citizens who can all play a crucial role in addressing public health, nature and climate crises. The Food Hour project can help realise this by helping to nurture well-informed, empowered and inspired future generations who are motivated to make choices that positively impact their health, the environment, and their local communities.
The Food Hour is being developed by the same team that initiated the multi award-winning Food and Fun programme which has subsequently become a Programme for Government commitment being delivered across Wales. Food and Fun has demonstrated multiple health and social benefits to thousands of children, parents, carers and school staff, and it’s anticipated that this pilot has the potential to have a similar effect.
If you’d like to know more about The Food Hour, we’ll be holding a stakeholder engagement event in Cardiff on Thursday, March 14th 2024. To register your interest, please email foodsensewales@wales.nhs.uk
