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Hakuna Fruitata is a StreetGames-led project designed to provide practical, interactive and fun food workshops for young people to enjoy in a ‘no worries’, ‘no pressure’ environment.
Through our work supporting community organisations delivering holiday activities for children and young people, it has been clear that staff and providers are passionate and enthusiastic about supporting children to follow a healthy lifestyle. Feedback from young people also showed that they were keen to engage in more cooking and practical activities with food that they may not get the opportunity to do at home. However, a lack of resources and confidence to deliver educational food-related activities meant that many providers were unable to offer these activities.
We wanted to find a way to give children access to practical, interactive workshops and opportunities which broaden their experience of food, primarily fruit and vegetables, and to enable holiday club staff, young leaders and volunteers to have the confidence, ideas and skills to co-ordinate and deliver practical food-based activities.
The fundamentals of Hakuna Fruitata are:
- Have fun
- Be positive (in the language being used)
- Don’t be afraid to challenge existing thoughts and perceptions
- Be confident in having ‘healthy conversations’
- Health by Stealth approach
Case Study 1: Soup Making
As part of Hakuna Fruitata, young people got involved in making soup using tasty, fresh ingredients. The young people helped to prepare the vegetables, as well as deciding which ingredients and fresh herbs to include before putting it all into the pot to make a delicious soup for lunch!
Case Study 2: Exploring fruit and vegetables
To encourage young people to try new, healthy foods, more than 4,500 young people in Birmingham received a delivery of fresh produce to their holiday club through Hakuna Fruitata. The young people were then encouraged to explore the fruit using their five senses, including a bush tucker style blind taste test! The fruit and vegetables used were donated by Fareshare using surplus stock that would have otherwise gone to landfill, opening up the opportunity to also discuss the importance of managing food waste.
Case Study 3: Family Food Festivals
Family Food Festivals focussed on food education for all members of the family. Providers hosted cooking tutorials in which children and parents were encouraged to work together to create a nutritious meal which they then sat down to enjoy together. Each family were then given a food box containing enough food to feed a family of four for four meals to take home with them.
Pam Noel, StreetGames Food and Nutrition Lead, said: “It will take time before we see an impact on eating habits and behaviours of children, but this project provides additional opportunities to increase the frequency and repetition of expanding the breadth of taste palates of children, which we know has a direct correlation on positive eating habits.”
