So I've just spent the last two months working at Camp Kernow, an environmental adventure camp for children in Cornwall, UK. The camp is an amazing place, completely off-grid and immersed in nature. We were powered by the sun, growing our own food, filtering water in reed-beds, sleeping in the woods and spending all day, every day outside. With my background and passion for food, my role involved delivering workshops on food sustainability and nature, leading cooking sessions with the kids, and preparing the camp meals. As my first project out of London, it felt like a retreat for healing, albeit with exuberant children at 6:30am.
Photos: From top left to right, the 'geodome' at dusk (our saviour from the rain), the polytunnel (which we shared with a family of 5 pheasants), one of the many spectacular sunsets over camp, the kitchen (with solar cooker and a wood fired rocket stove), the harvesting blackboard, the staff tents glowing at night.
Teaching young people how to cook is a fundamental part of a sustainable food future. To me this seems obvious, yet only 26% of British primary schools offer practical cooking lessons. This lack of focus on food education continues into secondary school, exacerbated by the Food Technology A-Level being scraped in 2018. Not only do the kids who are passionate about food not have an obvious route into the industry, but the broader population are not picking up the essential life lessons of cooking and healthy eating.
A lack of food education is concerning. Consuming a diverse, plant-focussed, low-processed diet relies on the ability to be able to cook. The current food curriculum seems to acknowledge this, stating that by 14, all pupils should be able to “understand the source, seasonality and characteristics of a broad range of ingredients” and “cook a repertoire of predominantly savoury dishes”. Yet I'm not convinced this is being achieved. A recent YouGov poll showed that nearly 1 in 5 young adults lack the confidence to cook with fresh ingredients, and 58% don't think they are good cooks.
Sadly, it's not just the confidence that suffers. 1/3 of children are now overweight by the time they leave primary school, and the same number eat less than 1 portion of fruit or veg per day. Whilst many parts of the food system play into this, the lack of food education will not be helping. So, whilst we can hope the new government will review the food education strategy, it falls to caregivers and other organisations to pick up the slack. But the good news is - many kids actually love to cook.
At Camp Kernow, children would harvest and cook almost every meal, with us adults there to just guide and support. We'd make wood-fired pizza from scratch and veggie spaghetti Bolognese over the campfire. The kids would be eagerly unzipping their tents at the crack of dawn to ask to harvest and cook before breakfast.
Photos: An array of homegrown produce, over the summer season we enjoyed tomatoes, cucumbers, a variety of salad, aubergine, courgette, beetroot, green peppers, green beans, nasturtium, borage, basil, chives and even a baby watermelon!
The sensory experience of cooking meals from plot to plate seemed to have a hugely positive impact. Take coleslaw as an example. Many kids would tell us they didn't like it, but after they'd harvested the beetroot, grated it, made a dressing and served it to their friends, they were much more willing to give it another go, often with thumbs up reviews! This hugely worked in our favour as we worked through a glut of courgettes. Whilst courgettes didn't seem to feature on any of the children's favourite foods list, we were committed to cooking with as much home-grown produce as possible. Cue courgette curry, courgette soup, courgette pizza, courgette rocky road (slight exaggeration on the last one!). But I went to bed with a smile as the kids told me courgette curry was the best curry ever.
Photos: From plot to plate - harvesting veg for our weekly vegetable curry, served with homemade flatbreads - recipe on the blog.
It seems a real shame that food education isn't being properly supported by schools and the government. Not only do kids seem to love it, but being able to cook and look after our health is a true life lesson. It actually seems crazy that many kids leave 13 years of education without this skill. Camp Kernow does an amazing job of bringing food education to life and my time with the kids is a reminder that cooking really is a joy. If you're keen to help the cause - writing to your local MP is one of the best ways to have your say.
If you have children that might fancy a week of outdoor adventure, forging toasting forks, lighting fires, canoeing, forest bathing, silk-screen printing, pizza making and loads more - you can check out the website here https://campkernow.org.uk/.
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