Youngsters in Ruthin have been trying their hands at pizza-making as part of three weeks of Food and Fun at ten Denbighshire primary schools.
Food distribution giants Harlech Foodservice, who supply Denbighshire schools during term time, delivered the ingredients and the pupils of Ysgol Borthyn in Ruthin produced the pizzas.
They were given dough to roll out before the spread tomato sauce and then added a selection of tasty ingredients before adding a cheesy topping.
The children – and their Food and Fun supervisors, teaching assistants Marian Chambers, Nic Minshull and Fiona Royles – enjoyed getting hands-on with the ingredients.
Megan, aged 5, said: “It’s been good. I’ve loved coming to school for Food and Fun” and James, eight, said: “I love spaghetti but I like pizza too.”
Marian said: “Food and Fun has been running for three weeks into the summer holidays and the children have really enjoyed it – we’ve had about 40 of them here most days.
“We have had plenty of activities including an Olympics themed day with flags of different nations, an Olympic torch and a relay race.
“It’s part of a Welsh Government scheme and the children have breakfast and lunch here and they get the chance to try new and different food as part of a healthy eating programmeand they take part in physical activities as well.
“They go home after lunch but some of them have been asking if they can stay all day because they’ve enjoyed it so much.
“A lot of them have tried food they’ve never had before – some of them have never had pizza – and they also have salads and fruit.”
Harlech Foodservice’s Ursula Scurrah-Price and Britney Loughborough, the Local Account Manager who organises the orders for Ysgol Borthyn and other local schools, hospitals and businesses, oversaw the event and the delivery of the ingredients.
Ursula said: “This is part of the work we are doing with schools across North Wales this summer and at a number of schools we have been providing pizza-making sessions to give the children a taste for making food.
“It’s such a healthy thing to do and helps them learn about the value of good food and the pleasure you can get not just from eating it but from preparing it too.
“It helps them learn about the value of good, healthy ingredients and we have included at least one vegetable in each pizza and ensured they have the right kind of cheese, mozzarella.
“It’s also important to learn about the right use of quantities – we don’t want too much tomato. No-one wants a soggy bottom.”
“It’s so important for young people to learn about the value of good food at an early age and to understand and enjoy preparing healthy and tasty meals and hopefully it encourages the whole family to get involved.”
Harlech operate from bases at Criccieth, in Gwynedd, Chester, Merthyr Tydfil, Carmarthen and Telford and between the five locations, the company has increased employment to 250 staff and is running a fleet of vehicles to deliver up to 5,000 product lines to schools, cafés, restaurants, pubs and public sector customers across the whole of Wales, Shropshire, the Midlands and the North West.
