Sure Start Children’s Centres, provided by North Halifax Partnership, set up and delivered a four-week slow cooker in the North and East and Lower Valley areas of Halifax during September and November. The funding for this course was provided by CFFC Household Support Fund.
The aim was to educate families on how to provide healthy, nutritious meals using a slow cooker, which is known to be a more cost-effective way of cooking. The courses were delivered by internal staff from the family support team, so a friendly face was there to greet the participants each week.
Each week had a theme and also covered energy saving ideas, learning about hidden sugars in food and jars, how to be healthier by moving more and how to make healthy food swaps. Those that attended were provided with the ingredients each week to prepare a meal from a recipe and more importantly those that attended were given a slow cooker to keep. The course also demonstrated that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make healthy and tasty food. Attendees said they saw an increase in their confidence and skills to provide healthy and nutritious meals for their families by the end of the course. Further recipes cards were provided for future meal ideas.
A total of nine families attended the course in Lower Valley and eight families attended in North & East.
Their feedback included:
“We are now looking for food that is going to make good meals to freeze to help with the cost of living and to be healthier.”
“It’s made a massive difference, my son who is autistic and fussy about food ate the full slow cooker of curry and casserole which we made at the session.”
“I now make home cooked food nearly daily. It made me feel more confident in making meals and enjoy cooking more.”
If you would like more information about the next upcoming slow cooker course, you can contact 01422 251090.
To learn more about the range of other courses provided by North Halifax Partnership and the Sure Start Children’s Centres, please visit https://surestartchildrenscentresnhp.org.uk/
