Central England Co-op hold virtual workshop to help educate children about making healthy choices

Posted by james brindle | Published: 28/10/2020


Youngsters are set to receive a free online workshop giving them tips on making healthy choices thanks to Central England Co-op.

In normal circumstances the retailer’s membership and community team offer free workshops in schools and community groups across the country, providing interactive sessions covering such subjects as Fairtrade and healthy choices.

The healthy choices workshops offer the chance for children to get hands-on with a range of activities, including how to make fun fruit kebabs, gain an understanding of food labelling, as well being taught about the importance of getting meal portion sizes right so that no food goes to waste.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Society’s Member and Community Relations Officers (MCROs) who deliver the sessions have not been able to visit schools and other settings to deliver the workshops in person so have looked to create a virtual alternative to help get the important messages out to children.

The virtual healthy choices workshop will be piloted in partnership with the charity Woodcraft Folk using video conferencing site Zoom on Tuesday, 3 November and it is open to young members of the charity aged between six and 12 years old.

Kym Cooper, MCRO for the eastern region at Central England Co-op, will be leading the workshop.

She said: “We have really missed going into schools and community groups and delivering the healthy choices workshops to children. They are always fun, interactive sessions which the children get a lot out of and the feedback has always been great.

“While it is not currently possible to deliver the workshops in person we wanted to find a way to support schools and groups with these important sessions to ensure the messages around making healthy choices are still getting through.

“We are delighted to work with Woodcraft Folk on this session which will help young people to navigate the complicated world of nutrition. It will provide easy to remember tips and advice to enable our younger generation to make informed choices for healthy living.

“Hopefully, if this session works well we may be able to roll out the online workshops to more groups and organisations in the coming weeks.”

The topics the session will cover include your 5-a-day explained, how to eat healthily, food labelling made clear, what’s a good portion size? and understanding food groups.

Woodcraft Folk members can join the event at https://dreambigathome.uk/live/

 

 

Notes to editors

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral and property investment.

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish.  

Our 7,900 colleagues who serve Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

Phone - 01543 421390

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop