ASDA announced today (Wednesday 17th November) it was joining forces with The Kids' Cookery School (KCS), a registered charity, to develop a new range of healthy and nutritious food specifically for kids. The Kids' Cookery School specialises in promoting healthy eating and food awareness through hands-on cookery lessons from its base in West London.
The supermarket's chefs will work hand-in-hand with the KCS team and children who attend the school, to design kid-friendly meals that are tasty and nutritious. The new range will contain naturally healthy ingredients and will be simple for children to prepare and cook themselves. The range will start to appear in ASDA's stores next year.
The supermarket also outlined plans to bolster its schools programme by targeting nearly half a million 5-11 year olds in 2005. The Big Healthy Eat teaches kids the importance of healthy eating through interactive, store-based, educational trails.
Angela Spindler, ASDA's trading and marketing director said:
" I'm a mum and I know how hard it is sometimes to find time to cook from scratch, that's why we want our new kids range to be both convenient and nutritious. The meals we create together with KCS will make it easier for parents to buy good quality, wholesome food that children will love to eat, rather than push around their plates."
Fiona Hamilton-Fairley, principal and chief executive of The Kids’ Cookery School said:
" Our ethos at KCS is to encourage children to learn about nutrition and the need for a healthy and balanced diet through cooking food themselves. We offer children, from all types of disadvantaged and underprivileged backgrounds the opportunity to take part in the practical experience of preparing food using fresh ingredients - a vital life skill that sets them in good stead for a healthier future."
Through ASDA's support, KCS hopes to expand and develop additional Kids’ Cookery Schools throughout Britain in the next few years. Fiona added: "By working together we aim to raise the importance of healthy eating to both children and parents nationwide, whilst campaigning to Government to get practical cookery back on the national curriculum where it belongs."
Notes for editors
The Kids’ Cookery School (KCS), a registered charity, provides equal opportunities to all children to gain experience of practical cookery as a vital life skill. Since opening in April 2000, KCS has taught over 9,500 children. The school accommodates children with special needs and has state of the art facilities that cater for students with a wide range of disabilities. 35% of its students are special needs, 45% are from ethnic minorities and over 65% of places are awarded on an assisted basis.
ASDA supports the school by providing all of the ingredients necessary for it to conduct its lessons each week. The supermarket will also be donating a proportion of the profits from its new kids range, developed in conjunction with KCS, back to the charity. This will enable the charity to extend its services to even more children throughout the UK
