It's more important than ever that kids are inspired to take an interest in what they eat, and the FoodActive camps encourage just that, writes Marie-Claire Digby
What do you get when you put three professional chefs in a school canteen with 19 budding Jamie Olivers ranging in age from 10 to 16 years? "Organised chaos," says Garth McColgan, course director of the FoodActive summer camp at St Conleth's College in Ballsbridge. McColgan and his brother Mark, both professional chefs, have spent the summer equipping more than 200 young people with the knowledge and confidence to cook healthy food, and getting them involved in sporting activities, too.
The ethos of the camp is "to enable students to experience the relationship between sporting activity, a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle". A sports coach is part of the team each summer; this year Lisa Banahan filled that role. The third chef involved in the programme is Paul Quinlan, a well-respected cricketer whose coaching experience has given him an easy way with the youngsters, who rise to the challenges presented by the pros as they work together to cook tasty, nutritionally balanced dishes.
"We're not about sticking Smarties on gingerbread men; we're about showing them how a real chef works," Garth McColgan says. Even the Bolognese sauce the kids made is a "proper", interesting recipe that includes finely chopped chicken liver, which gets them used to handling, and eating, something they might not otherwise have touched, never mind eaten. "You can make a Bolognese sauce with four or five ingredients, or use 12 or 13, and that's what we do. There's no point in showing them how to do things vaguely correctly, they've got to do it properly."
When fish was on the menu, the students got to handle and identify a range of raw fish, the braver ones tried some oysters, and they cooked mackerel, which was something of a surprise hit. "I asked the class beforehand who didn't like fish, and nine of the 19 put their hands up. So we fried some really fresh mackerel and they wolfed them down."
So why are so many young people picky eaters, and squeamish about eating certain foods? McColgan believes children should be exposed to a wide variety of tastes as young as possible.
"By being adventurous and tasting lots of different things you are building up a taste library in your mind. Cooking with children is the number one thing we can do to foster food awareness in them. But don't make a big thing of it if there's something your child doesn't want to eat. Leave it, and try again later. Pick your battles."
Motivating young people to take an active interest in what they're eating is something the McColgan brothers and Paul Quinlan are passionate about, and in addition to running the FoodActive camps, and feeding the students at Gonzaga College and St Conleth's during term time, they teach a food appreciation module to transition-year students.
"We cook, eat, and discuss food issues. Things like being able to read food labels are so important. Children should be encouraged to understand the components of what they are eating. They may be sophisticated in their tastes, but they don't know the inside stories of the food industry."
McColgan, who has four children, is disparaging of "children's menus" and believes that children should eat the same meal as adults, in smaller portions. "And why does every children's menu have the same things on it? Restaurateurs have a degree of responsibility in this area. You should be able to order, and pay for, a half portion."
Could all those childhood plates of sausages and chips, or nuggets and chips, be partly responsible for the rise in obesity? Two years ago, John Treacy, chairman of the National Taskforce on Obesity, reported that childhood obesity had become "one of the most prevalent childhood diseases in Europe, with overweight and obesity affecting more than 300,000 children in Ireland alone".
McColgan is somewhat dismissive of the findings of the taskforce, which presented 93 recommendations to Government in its report. He describes the findings as being "glib", and too focused on the presumption that a person's chances of being overweight depend on which social demographic they come from.
"My point is that it is not simply a lack of education, it's a specific lack of education in matters of food and nutrition. We have to be proactive about changing how we deliver food education to our children, and begin by making sure that all children learn how to cook in school."
Until that happens, FoodActive's summer camps are making a positive contribution to ensuring that young people make informed choices about what and how they eat.
See www.foodactive.ie. This summer's FoodActive programme has been completed, but you can register for next year by sending an e-mail to info@foodactive.ie