St. Aldhelm's Gets A Taste For Cookery Thanks To The Food Education Trust's Largest Donation

The Food Education Trust (www.foodeducationtrust.com) has revolutionised food technology lessons at St Aldhelm’s Academy in Poole by providing an extensive range of modern, up-to-date, catering and cookery equipment. The donation, the largest to date awarded by the Food Education Trust, worth in excess of £2750, has enabled the school to significantly improve the cookery lessons it provides as part of the national curriculum, as well as extra-curricular activities.

Adrian Clarida, food technology teacher and head of the food department at St Aldhelm’s Academy, comments, “Thank you so much for your assistance with our need for catering equipment. It’s such a popular course with in-excess of 100 students studying some form of catering subject from KS3 to 4. The new equipment has made a tremendous difference to the attitude of the young people as they feel they have decent quality resources to use. I have definitely seen an improvement in their practical sessions. Many, many thanks.”

The Food Education Trust is an independent charity that provides vital support to many schools and educational establishments. It has equipped thousands of children and adults with essential cooking skills, giving them the know how to create meals from basic ingredients.  With government funding being slashed, The Food Education Trust delivers much needed support and advice where it is needed. The charity is funded entirely by sales of award-winning author, Romilla Arber’s cookery books “What’s for Dinner?” and the award-winning “What’s for Dinner? Second Helpings” both are available to purchase in all good bookshops and online at www.amazon.co.uk

“We receive many requests for funding from schools and colleges and do our best to help them wherever we can to benefit children and adults’ so that they can learn about cooking real food and how to prepare nourishing home cooked meals on a budget. It is very rewarding to see how a donation can change attitudes so profoundly and we look forward to continuing our work with St Aldhelms.” comments Romilla Arber, cookery author and founder of the Food Education Trust.

The children at the school had plenty to say about how glad they were to have the new equipment:

Year 11 Home Cooking Skills

“The new equipment has made a massive difference to our cooking. It was so hard baking things before as we didn’t have the right size trays or spring form ones either. Thank you so much it made our cakes and gateaux amazing!!!” said pupil in Year 11

“We love the Brownie tins” said Year 10 GCSE pupil

 “Wow, the knives make it so easy to cut things now, my knife skills have improved lots!”

“Thank you for the mixers they’ve made things a lot quicker for us”

“We had to make Chocolate Éclairs, we tried to make them before but the mixture used to just stick to the saucepan and it never worked even if we tried really hard not to make it stick, now it’s easy with new nonstick pans and our éclairs were so nice.” Said Year 9 catering students