Education
Children
We believe that a love of food must be nurtured from a young age and that interest in food; its origin, how it is produced, how to cook it, how to taste it, naturally leads to healthier, more balanced eating. Eating together and getting enjoyment from food is important from social perspective, but also encourages better eating habits. Finally, through food education,  children can learn much about nature, environmental responsibility and sustainability.
Children, who are easily influenced and readily absorb information, are primary targets for marketing. Unfortunately highly processed foods are frequently targeted at children and their palates are being ‘dumbed down’ by food with high salt, sugar and fat content. Exposure to these foods at a young age means they become reliant on these tastes for flavour hits and do not develop a taste for other foods.
The future of our food is in the hands of our children and it is up to us to ensure they are equipped with the knowledge and tools to make better food choices. Children today are well-educated on environmental issues such as pollution and carbon footprints, and readily pick-up concepts like ‘food miles’, seasonality, organic, local etc. If we reach children young enough, when they are full of curiosity, adventurousness and independent spirit, most of them are very open, happy to try new things and delighted with the chance to grow and prepare their own food.
Euro-toques School Food Workshops
   
Nurturing healthier eating habits and a passion for food
For many years Euro-toques Ireland has carried out a range of initiatives to help educate children about food and encourage better eating habits. In the early years this involved Euro-toques chefs taking a ‘roadshow’ to schools around the country and in more recent years teaming up with Slowfood to visit school to carry out intensive hands-on workshops, involving not only chefs but also artisan food producers.
This has now developed into an annual week of nationwide School Food Workshops, in which Euro-toques chefs around the country voluntarily visit local national schools – and sometimes even invite classes to their restaurants and cookery schools.
Euro-toques takes a holistic approach to the area of ‘food education’. The aim is to give young children an appreciation of food and instil an enjoyment of cooking and eating. It is not about words like nutrition and calories, it is not about negative messages – it is about giving children an appreciation of where food comes from, how it is grown, how it is prepared and, above all, how to enjoy it. Given the information and tools they, children are empowered to make the better choices about how they eat.
The workshops include such activities as planting, smoothie-making, healthy lunch-box tips and recipe ideas. Children will also take part in the ‘Tasting Table’, where their senses will be challenged in a ‘blind tasting’ where they will touch, smell, taste and describe a variety of foods from cheeses and olives to honey and dark chocolate.
La Rousse Foods support this initiative by providing ‘Tasting Packs’ of food ingredients to all the participating chefs.
Other than this support, the project has no funding. Chefs give their time for free and source most of the materials themselves, or with sponsorship from their own suppliers and local food producers. Funds are desperately needed to cover some of these costs and the cost of printing materials for the workshops, so that we can continue this worthwhile initiative and expand it to more schools around the country. Accessing children while they are still young is key to ensuring healthy eating habits in the future. We would love to see every child in the country benefiting from these or similar workshops.
We are always looking for chefs, food producers and other volunteers to take part/run in workshops. We are also eager to work with like-minded bodies to expand this work as much as possible.
Organisations or businesses interested in partnering on or sponsoring the project should contact Ruth Hegarty on 01-679995.
Schools wishing to take part in this initiative next year should email their details to info@euro-toques.ie
See our Calendar of Events for more details.
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