Volunteer Shelley Whitney tells us about how the Small Grant, Big Difference funding enabled her to set up the Hungry Caterpillars cooking group, and explains how this has benefited children and families in the local community.
The children in the local community have benefited immensely from the Small Grant, Big Difference funding, and I hope this article will explain in further details how, and share some of our ideas for success with other groups.
By attending Hungry Caterpillars the children have learnt how to cook a whole range of healthy and nutritionally balanced foods. They have learnt how to use a child safety knife to chop tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, peppers and lots of other foods. They have used knives to spread butter making bread and butter pudding. They have used forks to mash avocado and banana, making Mexican bagels and banana and raisin flapjacks.
They know how to safely use scales, measuring cups, toasters and microwaves as well as learning how to wash and clean up by following a washing up system, and cleaning the table area using an antibacterial spray.
It is recommended that children under 5 learn these important skills and Hungry caterpillars is helping children in Luton to learn these essential skills for life. We took some of our ideas on basic skills for under 5's taken from
Since beginning the group, we have achieved
1. Butter
ing a slice of bread
2. Cracking eggs by tapping the centre of the egg over the rim of a small bowl, and then using thumbs to pull the two halves apart
3. Decorating fairy cakes or biscuits – spreading on the icing butter or just adding the sprinkles and toppings
4. Kneading and rolling out dough using a rolling pin
5. Cutting shapes out using cookie cutters
6. Using a sieve – by holding it over a larger bowl and gently shaking
7. Cutting soft fruit or vegetables, such as a banana, with a non-sharp knife
8. Grating cheese – especially good if you’ve got a rotary grater
9. Crushing biscuits for bases or non-cook chocolate recipes – in a plastic bag with a rolling pin
10. Rubbing in butter and flour for crumble
11. Crushing garlic in a garlic press
12. Greasing and lining cake tins
13. Mashing bananas with the back of a fork for banana bread/cake
14. Mashing potato with a potato masher
15. Peeling vegetables with a vegetable peeler
Not just for kids
The parents have also benefited by learning how to make simple, easy and healthy foods for their children. They can take away a recipe to keep for the next time they wish to create the food at home. They enjoy this experience with their children and have enjoyed meeting and socialising with other people in the local community too. One parental review on the Hungry caterpillars Facebook page states "What a brilliant idea!! We loved baking & playing! Looking forward to coming again!! X".
Some of the foods we have made include: 
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Traffic light muffins
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Raspberry oat bites
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Cheese and marmite swirls
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Bread and butter pudding
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Fruit sundaes
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Tuna fish cakes
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Rich and raw spaghetti
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Gluten free biscuits
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Speedy sausage rolls
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Apple and mincemeat crumble
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Peppermint creams
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Mini calzone
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Apple and raisin muffins
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Microwave mug cake
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Omelettes in a bag
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Mexican bagels
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Banana and raisins flapjacks
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and healthy crisps using tortilla wraps.
It’s not just the parents and children who benefit - I have completed level 2 food hygiene in catering training online and it has enabled me to understand all about food preparation, storage and food handling. Hungry Caterpillars received Level 5 (Very good) for the food hygiene rating during our last inspection by the Food standards agency.
Hungry Caterpillars now has 7 volunteers who help to run the session. Not all of the volunteers can make each and every session but attend at least 4 times in each term. The volunteers are made up of ladies who live in the local community. One lady is studying, two are unemployed, one lady is retired and three work part time around their young family. Volunteering at Hungry Caterpillars has given them confidence and they value it immensely.
"What a brilliant idea!! We loved baking & playing! Looking forward to coming again!! X".
One of the volunteers has recently completed food hygiene training and I have just initiated food hygiene training for the additional 6 volunteers online. It was important to choose an online course due to the ladies work, studying and family commitments as we were unable to source an in-person course for everyone. This way everyone can complete the course in their own time which is important because some of the ladies have not completed any formal training for over 40 years.
With thanks to the Small Grant, Big Difference grant, Hungry Caterpillars is going from strength to strength and is able to continue to offer this unique, interesting and important community pre-school cooking group.
Written for the Pre-school Learning Alliance by Shelley Whitney, Trustee and Volunteer at the Hungry Caterpillars pre-school cooking group at St Hugh’s Church, Lewsey.