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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) Cooking Bus will join a ‘Dig For Victory’ campaign in St. James’s Park to discover how people on the Home Front grew their own food and how Britain was kept fed during the Second World War.
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Part of St James’s Park will be transformed into a Second World War allotment, recreated to celebrate the Dig for Victory Campaign of over sixty years ago. A modern day allotment will be created alongside it to show how vegetables are grown today. The allotments will cover 500 square metres and will be used throughout the summer to grow fruit and vegetables such as potatoes and runner beans.
The event will also provide an opportunity for Westminster community groups to take part in cooking lessons aboard the Food Standards Agency Cooking Bus and cook a range of fresh foods and healthy meals from scratch. This will include learning about the ‘Oslo meal’, which was derived specially for children during the Second World War to improve their health and nutrition. Developed in partnership with The Focus on Food Campaign, the Cooking Bus covers over 10,000 miles each year, cooking up more than 1,800 dishes and delivering improved food education to over 6000 pupils and 800 teachers.
Gill Fine, Director of Consumer Choice and Dietary Health at the Food Standards Agency, said: The Cooking Bus has visited many parts of the UK and helped many children understand more about the food they eat. I hope that the community groups who visit the Bus in St James’ Park will enjoy the experience and improve their knowledge of cooking, nutrition and food hygiene'.
Anita Cormac, Director of Focus on Food, said: 'The Cooking Bus brings hands-on practical experience of cooking, nutrition and food hygiene to young people and the wider community. Not only is the experience hugely enjoyable, boosts confidence and encourages social skills – but it is also vital to the future health of the nation. Every child should have a right to a practical food education. It’s only if you can cook that you have a choice in what you eat.'
- If you are interested in attending one of the sessions, interviewing the teachers and photographing the groups cooking in the workshops please contact Angela Owusu in the Press Office on: 0207 276 8822
- Media are invited to cooking sessions on: Wednesday 30 May 10.30am-12pm, 1.00-2.30pm or Thursday 31; May 9.30-11.30am or 11.30am-1.00pm
- For further information about the work of Focus on Food, the UK's leading food education programme, and the Cooking Bus, please contact Hannah Ridgeway at Focus on Food on: 01422 383191 or email: focusonfood@designdimension.org, or visit www.designdimension.org
- Entry into the Dig For Victory allotment in the Park is free
- The Dig For Victory project has been set up by the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, and The Royal Park. It will be supported by a temporary display that includes a film featuring Marguerite Patten discussing her wartime role working for the Ministry for Food, examines why the Dig For Victory campaign was necessary during the Second World War, its effects on the health and diets of British families, plus daily updates on the allotment’s growth and maintenance
- The Dig For Victory allotment will be open every day from 25 May to 30 September 2007 between 10am and 5pm. For further details about the project and events programme visit the Imperial War Museum website www.iwm.org.uk/cabinet
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