This represents a 10% increase in the number of schools which participated in last year’s inaugural event and means that more than 1.5 million schoolchildren will be taking part in Healthy Eating Week activities, which are designed to increase their knowledge and understanding about healthy eating, cooking and food provenance, and the benefits of physical activity.
Roy Ballam, education programme manager at the BNF free Healthy Eating Week resources were being sent to schools in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“The materials are structured into five themes: food origins, healthy active lifestyles, food and drink choices, meal occasions, food preparation and cooking; and include five themed posters, stickers, assemblies, tutorials and hundreds of activity ideas.
“Our materials for this year’s Healthy Eating Week have been developed based on feedback we received from participating schools last year – we’ve focused on having key themes and developing new activities to engage children.
“Our experience last year tells us that there will be literally thousands of creative and often fun hands-on, written and digital projects taking place throughout the week, as schools demonstrate their commitment to healthy eating, cooking and learning where foods come from.
“Schools will be arranging farm visits, working with local chefs, and growing their own food.”
For Healthy Eating Week 2014, the BNF will also be delivering an online Cook-a-long programme, with separate pre-scheduled recipe demonstrations for primary and secondary age children to participate in each day of the week.
Ballam added: “The Cook-a-long programme is a fantastic way for teachers to engage children of all ages with the love of cooking via our live webinars.
“The recipes, which are available in advance so that ingredients can be obtained, are selected to be suitable for Primary and Secondary age groups and can easily be scheduled in to lesson time.”
All schools participating in Healthy Eating Week will also receive a certificate and pupils are invited to enter a Healthy Eating Week competition to win one of six £100 prizes for their school.
A BNF survey of UK school children’s eating behaviour and knowledge in the context of mealtime occasions, is currently taking place and results will be revealed at the start of Healthy Eating Week.
Last year more than 27,500 schoolchildren took part in the survey, which was the largest of its kind.