Healthy Eating: Taster Sessions

A day out - a picnic in the sunshine

Brighton and Hove Foyer residents and staff enjoyed getting out and about together, for a day walking in the sunshine and relaxing over a tasty, healthy picnic. Photos will be posted soon.

New Tastes

Brighton and Hove Foyer staff encouraged residents to try new and different foods by holding a New Tastes Taster Session. Many of the young people live on very restricted diets low in essential nutrients and are scared of trying new foods. The day was filled with competitions, quizzes, prizes and free food, to help break down some of these barriers. Everyone had a real giggle with a blindfold testing and enjoyed eating everything up after the taster session. The same food was used until one of the blindfolded participants guessed what it was!

Here is some of what they tried...
Maple syrups
Chocolate syrups
Mustards
Pickle juice
Sugars
Salt
Cinnamon
Ketchup
Juices

Smoothie making

A popular, interactive and fun activity, to inspire young people to eat more fruit in an easy, tasty way. Several Foyers have had smothie making sessions including Yeovil Foyer, but Blackburn with Darwen Foyer have taken this on to the next level by creating a ‘Smoothie making bike’! The blender was powered by a bike, so participants peddled on the static bike to make their smoothie. A two-in-one activity, promoting both healthy eating and physical activity. Everyone enjoyed a variety of healthy smoothies, with a range of fruits and flavours. Photos will be posted soon.

"The faster the participants peddled, the quicker their smoothie was made… it was such a success, it has now become a weekly activity!” Gareth Mcgrail, Health Champion Darwen with Blackburn and Darwen Foyer.

‘Are you Fresh or Preserved?’

Resident Health Champions Zanelle Philbert and Clarissa Dougan ‘womaned’ the stall for the East Potential Health Launch, held at Jack Petchy Foyer in Barking.

All East Potential Foyers joined together for the Health Launch Event at Jack Petchy Foyer.

Redbridge Foyer staff provided packet food items and home-made food items such as macaroni and cheese and burgers. Blindfolded young people had to choose which they liked most. The majority of young people preferred home-made, fresh food and they learnt about the benefits of eating home-made food. Photos will be posted soon.

First Step staff and residents made smoothies and Focus E15 gave massages and a workshop on 'eat well plates': identifying which food groups food items fit into, and how much of each food group you should eat every day.

Other East Potential Foyers also set up stalls at the Launch Event which included: Healthy Food, Self-Health Awareness Information, Indian Head Massage, Steel Band, MC’ing and DJ’ing and more! See photos below.

What did First Step Foyer residents think of the 'Are you Fresh or Preserved' stall?

"I won't eat preserved foor and cook more at home."
"I will add more seasoning to my home-made burgers."
"I will plan my meals to be cost effective."
"I will eat more home-made food."
"I will experiment more with fresh food."
"I liked the home-made burger best!"

Making a healthy take-away

Staff and residents at Safe Start Foyer set the scene for an Italian Bistro by decorating their Common room with Italian flags and cut outs. They even covered the tables with red and white checked cloths and added candles in wine bottles for a real Mediterranean feel.

The aim was to show residents how easy it is to make a healthy and cheap take-away meal at home. Everyone rolled their sleeves up and enjoyed mucking in to make some delicious pizzas from scratch and gobbling them up afterwards!

Residents built on their cooking and group-working skills, and benefited from interacting with other residents. There was a lot of enthusiasm in the kitcken as everyone helped each other.

What did Safe Start Foyer residents think about the Healthy take-aways session?

"I will use the tomato and basil sauce in my food again."
"I will prepare my food and cook better from now on."
"I will eat and buy fewer pizzas now I know what goes into them!"

"I will enjoy myself when I'm cooking in the future!"

Credit Munch Month

Leominster Foyer got creative with lots of Healthy Eating taster sessions for the month of February.

The Healthy Eating Taster Sessions consisted of these three competitions: The winners' photos will be posted soon!

“I went to the shops and bought a week’s worth of healthy shopping. How much did it cost?” Whoever guesses how much was spent, wins the shopping.

Healthy Living quiz - Multiple choice quiz on what’s healthy and what’s not.

For the Credit munch meal, the young people received a £5 voucher to produce a healthy nutritious meal for two.The meal was graded on various attributes and the winner got a meal for two in one of Hereford's finest restaurants.

Two of the winners from the credit munch month were Lauren Homer and Jason Scotford, pictured below.

Lauren won the 'Do you know your vitamins from your minerals?' quiz and was awarded with a spice rack and cookery book. Jason made an excellent guess on 'how much was my healthy shopping?', being only one pence out with his guess. He won the contents of the shopping list. Their photo will be posted soon.

Josh Ball won the competition to produce the best healthy credit munch meal, with his own recipe for 'Josh's chinese balls'. He won a meal for two at his choice of restaurant, and chose to take his girlfriend to Ask for a slap up meal.
Everyone who took part (there were 22 entries accross the 3 competitions) also got a £5 voucher to use at subway, as a way of congratulating them on their efforts.

Beekeeping

Staff and young people from Market Rasen Foyer spent a day learning about beekeeping from a local bee keeper. Everyone enjoyed making their own candles and ended a great day feasting on different flavoured honey and homemade bread! Photos will be posted soon.

To find out about the benefits of honey click here:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_is_honey_healthy

Organic meals

Market Rasen Foyer invited a local health food proprietor to treat staff and residents to an organic meal. All the ingredients were provided for, and the residents watched and learnt as a tasty vegetable stir-fry, with a peanut butter-satay twist was wipped up for them! They also made smoothies and healthy, organic cakes as a little dessert treat. Photos will be posted soon.

Find out why organic food is better for you by clicking here:
http://www.organicfoodinfo.net/

Fruity Fridays

Every Friday at Blackburn Foyer, residents get lots of free fruit, which encourages them to eat healthily.

Human fruit machine

Making fruit fun! Market Rasen Foyer regularly plays the human fruit machine game. It keeps residents involved and it’s an interactive way of getting them to eat more fruit.

This is how the game works: Three residents have a shopping bag with an assortment of fruit. Whoever’s go it is will stop the music and all three participants pick out a piece of fruit at the same time. If they all pick out the same fruit, the winner keeps the fruit! Photos will be posted soon.