A SCHEME to teach children in the upper dale to cook nutritious meals has expanded to include home science projects.
Utass (Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services) youth group has been running a Cook Your Own Teas scheme, which sees recipes and ingredients for healthy meals being dropped off every fortnight to 55 kids. This is being ramped up during the summer holidays.
Earlier in the year Utass teamed up with Durham University evolutionary anthropologist Prof Sarah Elton to put on a science fair with funding from the British Science Association and more projects were planned through the year.
Utass Project manager Bob Danby said: “With Covid we have had to readjust it and we have tied it in with our Cook Your Own Teas.”
Along with the ingredients for their latest recipe, youngsters have also been receiving a kit to make their own weather station using such items as paper cups and straws. The cooking scheme has already proved a hit.
The recipes are devised by youth worker Gina Richardson and she gets help weighing out the ingredients from colleague Jen Smurthwaite.
Ms Richardson said: “At every opportunity we have stayed local with purchasing ingredients because we also wanted to support our local businesses.”
Meals the children have made include beef burritos during British Beef Week, pizza from scratch using dough made from yoghurt, toad-in-the-hole, chicken parmesan, pasta bake, cheese burgers, and sticky chicken with vegetables.
Ms Smurthwaite said the delivery scheme has had an additional benefit as it gives youth workers the chance to meet the parents of the youngsters who used to attend their youth club evenings at the Utass.
Ms Richardson added: “We have got to know the parents more through this.”
Youth workers also deliver cakes for young people celebrating their birthdays and award “key worker” certificates to children who have been helping out during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Cook Your Own Tea project is funded by Teesdale Action Partnership and the BBC’s Children in Need, along with donations from Morrisons and the Co-op.
