Splendiforous Easter Activities
This Easter, we partnered up with Ad Astra, New Lodge based CiC working with young people, to curate a series of Roald Dahl themed activities and food as part of the Healthy Holidays programme. It was a pilot workshop over two days, and a pre-cursor to a bigger programme we hope to launch this Summer that will see us harnessing the power of story to capture young minds.
Over the two days, which were jam packed full of fun, we wanted to encourage the young people who attended to jump out of their comfort zones, try new foods, and get involved in a host of activities we had set out for them. It was great fun for us, and we hope great fun for them too! We encouraged our groups to get their teeth (quite literally) stuck into…
- Blind food tasting and word creation
- Learning how the digestive system works through a Weetabix experiment
- Making edible slime
- Developing understanding and knowledge of oral hygiene
- Experimenting at George’s Marvellous Mixing Station to create fruit and vegetable juices
- Two active dance sessions with a Dance Tutor
- Trying out some new and exciting foods
Our Chefs, Chris and Julie, created a fantastic menu over the two days. We started out with a wonderful Minestrone soup followed by popping candy brownies on day one, then pink burger buns to accompany sliders, green “slime” and sweet potato wedges and salad on day two. At the end of the second day, we sent each of our attendees home with a meal bag, a recipe for our magical pasta sauce (full of hidden vegetables), and all the ingredients needed to make it. We also sent them home with the minestrone and burger recipes too.
Ultimately, food should be fun. It should capture our hearts and imaginations, and it should be a right (not a privilege) to be a foodie. It’s really important that we create spaces where the risks associated with trying out new foods is minimised, and that’s exactly what we set out to do over the two days working with the great young people, staff and volunteers at Ad Astra. Our workshop intended to create that space for creativity and invention, and we had a lot of fun pulling it all together.
Here’s a selection of photos from our workshop: