Last week, we launched a new guide What’s Cooking in Scotland? Part Three at our cooking skills learning exchange in Edinburgh. Around 40 people attended this, many of whom are running cooking courses within community and voluntary sector organisations in low-income communities. The new guide provides tools and ideas to help you think in more …
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Cooking skills blog 21: new CFHS guide – What’s cooking in Scotland? Part three
Fare Choice Issue 73
October 2016 edition of our regular newsletter, featuring updates from the CFHS team, food and health policy news and practice, and features from the community food and health sector.
Cooking skills blog 20: Are cooking skills courses any use to people experiencing food poverty?
Many practitioners running cooking courses across Scotland try to ensure these focus on preparing tasty, affordable healthy meals, using ingredients that can be bought in the shops that course participants already use. However, what do you do if you become aware that someone on your course might not be able to afford these budget recipes, …
Cooking skills blog 19: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: assessments, quizzes and photos
Our cooking skills study group recently met to share their ideas and discuss their evaluation challenges. All of them are confident about using at least two approaches or sources of evaluation such as: Taking observation notes during the course; and Using a participant self-reporting approach by asking participants to fill in questionnaires before and after the …
Cooking Skills Blog 17: What are the benefits of running a structured cooking skills course?
Earlier this week I attended the Community Cooking Network event at the Heart of Scotstoun Community Centre in Glasgow. It provided updates and ideas for those interested in, or delivering the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) ‘eat better feel better’ cooking courses. This course was designed and piloted by the NHS’s Health Improvement Team …
Cooking skills blog 16: practitioner guest blog –Gail Hutchison: reflecting on two very different approaches to managing and evaluating cooking courses
Gail is a member of the CFHS cooking skills study group on behalf of both NHS Forth Valley and Edinburgh Community Food. Her role at both is to manage and deliver cooking skills courses, but each organisation runs these differently. Gail explains the challenges and advantages for both her learning and as part of the …
Cooking Skills Blog 15 – Researcher guest blog: developing sustainable cooking courses in partnership with people using a mental health support centre
In this guest blog, Michelle Estradé, research consultant at the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP) explores how the idea of ‘ownership’ might help develop cooking courses within a mental health support centre that can be sustained in the longer term. ‘Over at SCPHRP we love partnering with community-based organisations to learn …
Cooking skills blog 14. What are the best recipes to use in a cooking skills course?
One of the topics that I would like to find out more about is: What are the most successful type of recipes for community cooking skills courses? ‘Success’ for members of our cooking skills study group means recipes that are cooked again at home by participants, (and preferably repeatedly). What’s the best way to choose …
Cooking skills blog 22: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: Guest blog by Jacqui McDowell: ‘The impact puzzle’
This week my colleague Jacqui McDowell (who has led on supporting our cooking skills study group on planning the evaluation of their cooking courses) reflects on the challenge of finding the perfect methods or tools to find out the difference your course is making. ‘We all know that we have to evaluate our cooking skills …