FAJITAS with chicken or halloumi, beef and aubergine burgers, cheesy lasagne, smoked tomato and lentil soup with homemade garlic bread… 

Is your mouth watering yet? 

These are just some of the easy, cheap and delicious recipes the kids, their parents and guardians at St Patrick’s Primary School in Glasgow have been rustling up after class.

Around 20 families, with children aged from 5 to 11, are enjoying learning budget-friendly cooking techniques with the help of a professional chef, and making some new friendships.

They meet for two hours on a Tuesday afternoon in a cookery club to prepare a tasty dish that doesn’t hang around for long – although the benefits do.

“The children love it. It’s an opportunity to apply learning from numeracy, literacy and health in a fun, collaborative way,” explains St Patrick’s headteacher Mary Moore. 

“Feedback from families has been extremely positive.” 

“They join their families at 2.30pm and we have a brilliant community chef. She does a demonstration and teaches them safe ways to cut vegetables – things like that.

“Then the kids go off to sports class with a coach for about 45 minutes. It’s another part they really look forward to. 

“So it’s all about a healthy lifestyle. They eat together and go home with a recipe card and any leftover ingredients.”

The cookery and coaching are made possible by the school’s Nourish programme to support healthy food and nutrition provision, which received Stronger Starts funding from Tesco. 

“We’re in an area of quite high deprivation,” says deputy head Tanya Stevenson, who helps implement the programme. 

“We also have families who are new to Glasgow for a variety of reasons – some have relocated for work or study, or to flee war or seek asylum. It’s very mixed.”

Parent Danielle Vella and her daughter Aria are loving the family cooking club.

“We’ve enjoyed every week so far – the cooking and meeting new families from the school. It has been a really nice experience with our community chef,” says Danielle.

“We are very grateful to Tesco for providing the ingredients each week and to the school for the opportunity to learn new skills and recipes.”

“We’ve also been able to buy new kitchen equipment,” adds Tanya. “Tesco has really gone above and beyond.”

Tesco Stronger Starts has awarded over £13 million to almost 12,000 community projects, with grant recipients chosen by more than 330 million customer votes using blue tokens in stores across the UK. Applications for Cooking for All grants close on May 30.

A Tesco Cooking for All grant supports children by providing food access and education on nutrition and cooking

To apply, visit tescostrongerstarts.org.uk/cookingfund

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