Pupils, families and staff are getting together at Kingfisher Primary School in Chatham for a fun-filled Cook and Share after-school event. Today’s session involves prepping, sharing and tasting some home-made soup, and families taking away bundles of chopped up vegetables ready to make their own soup at home.

The classroom is full of excited pupils eager to show off their chopping skills to their parents who are there to supervise.

On the menu is leek and potato soup, with lots of prep for everyone to get involved with. The ingredients for today have been donated by a local supermarket who are keen to support the pupils’ exploration of good food and means the cooking club can be run on a budget.

The families are having a great time slicing and dicing various vegetables to make their very own “It’s amazing, I love it” declares one pupil who is getting plenty of experience with knife skills, whilst parents are getting thoroughly involved, with one parent sharing, “it’s been fun! We’re looking forward to making more soup at home.”

The event ends with everybody having the chance to try some home-made soup, with one pupil  identifying that: “I can taste potato, I can taste leek, I can taste onion!”

“The one thing I’m going to take away from today is how buzzing the kids are. You can see how much they’ve enjoyed it,” shares Medway Councillor Eddie Peake who has been invited to the soup making event.

Grace Dennis, Food for Life’s Local Programme Manager in Medway says “it’s been great to see how Cook and Share resources have supported schools to put on special events like these. They give children and their families the opportunity to connect with and learn about good food in a fun and safe environment.”

As families file out with freshly prepared vegetables and recipes for leek and potato soup, those remaining to tidy up are filled with a sense of pride at the connections and delicious soup made today.

Alison Brightman, who is running the session today, was pleased to see so many getting involved in the activity. “Staff, pupils and parents really enjoyed coming together to celebrate Cook and Share. A large number of parents turned up to help and support their child chop and peel potatoes, leeks and onions to create a lovely leek and potato soup and also design a vegetable snack train. Kingfisher Primary School would like to thank Morrisons Walderslade for donating all the ingredients to support the Cook and share Session and also Food for Life for inspiring our cooking group with ideas and resources.”

Further Cook and Share recipes will be shared with families for more home cooking inspiration, and the cooking club will be getting together again in December to bake Christmas cookies and practice some more chopping skills.

Schools can put on their own Cook and Share event by registering and using free resources, find out more here.

Kingfisher Primary School is part of the Food for Life programme in Medway which is free for Medway schools. You can find out more about the programme here, or contact the Local Programme Manager, Grace: gdennis@soilassociation.org.