THE HEALTHIER SCOTLAND COOKING BUS
The Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus, funded by the Scottish Government and Food Standards Agency Scotland, delivers a Scottish based food education programme. Through the teaching and learning of practical cooking skills, levels of understanding and skills around food preparation and cooking complement other activities around diet and health, in particular creating a focus on the very real link between food choices, what is consumed and the impact on people’s health.
A visit from the Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus is a fantastic opportunity for staff, school children and community groups to share the experience of our hands on food sessions. The new programme includes 12 practical cooking sessions per visit, allowing even more people the chance to participate in sessions.
In this pack you will find exemplar timetables and options of how visits can run, information and guidelines on planning for a Cooking Bus visit, FAQ’s and diagrams of the Cooking Bus, all of which should help you complete your application form for a Cooking Bus visit. The Cooking Bus team will provide you with help and guidance from the moment you receive your Cooking Bus application pack.
Applications are selected on their own merit, but areas that we look specifically for are:
· Your commitment to continue cooking and promoting the legacy of the Cooking Bus once it has left.
· Your commitment to teacher training.
· The involvement of the local community.
· Your commitment to participation in the evaluation of our aims and outcomes.
· A high rate on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
· A high level of uptake of Free School Meals.
Should your application be successful, we will expect you to fill all of your sessions on the Bus, work towards at least 4 of the sessions being for teacher / community leader training, involve local community groups in the visit and promote the Cooking Bus visit throughout your local community.
Unfortunately not all applications will be successful. This could simply be because the Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus programme is complete for the year, or that the application does not meet any of the above mentioned areas. Once we receive your application form, we will look at it carefully and will then write to you, letting you know the status of your application. If we feel that it does not quite match the requirements that we are looking for, we will tell you of the areas it does not match in, so that you can maybe look to improve your
application to fit our requirements, giving your application the chance to be looked at again. The Cooking Bus coordinator will be available to give you advice on this.
If you are successful in being selected to host a Bus visit we aim to let you know as soon as we possibly can, this could be up to 6 months before a visit or only a few months. The first stage is to confirm the site for the Bus, we will use the sketches with measurements & photographs that you send with your application or if possible ask the Cooking Bus driver to view your site. Please remember that we will need access to water and 24-hour access to toilet and washing facilities for the driver (more details of these requirements can be found in the Information and Guidelines). Once the site is confirmed the teaching team on the Cooking Bus will contact you. They will work with you to create a programme for the visit that is tailored to your school’s or community group’s requirements.
Running as a constant thread through all sessions, is a focus on practical hands on cooking skills, healthy eating and food safety and hygiene. Extra emphasis for schools will be links to Curriculum for Excellence and how it can be embedded into the curriculum.
Evaluation is an integral part of the HSCB programme. Such assessment helps to ensure the activities carried out are as effective as possible and can help to identify areas for improvement. Evaluation also enables us to demonstrate the impact of our programme in relation to knowledge, skills and confidence gained. Additionally, the data collected allows us to better communicate our impact to others, which is critical for public relations, staff morale, and attracting and retaining support from current and potential funders for continuation of the Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus programme.
Once a Cooking Bus visit has been confirmed and organizers have planned which pupils will be attending sessions on the Bus, pre-evaluation questionnaires will be sent to the school. These are two questionnaires, one designed for younger pupils (P1-P4) and one for older pupils (P5 and up). Teachers will be expected to complete these with their class prior to the HSCB visit. Instructions for teachers on how to complete these forms with their class will be provided. Forms should be brought by the teachers along their Cooking Bus session. Pupils will complete similar, post evaluation questionnaires at the end of the session too. Adult pre and post evaluations will be completed whilst participants are on the Bus.
Following the visit we hope to keep in touch with your school and perhaps at a later date make a follow up visit. We want to see that the Cooking Bus legacy is continuing in your school and that cooking is playing an important part in your work with pupils, teachers, and local community members.
If you wish to apply for a visit by The Cooking Bus for your school, please read all the further documents and then complete the application form and return it to Focus on Food. We look forward to hearing from you and receiving your completed evaluation.
Joanne Johnstone
Cooking Bus Programmes Coordinator
Focus on Food
Telephone: 01422 383191
Email:
Find out more about The Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus and Focus on Food, and download recipes and tips at www.focusonfood.org.
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