Amber Pattullo is in the running for RBS Back Her Business competition and has launched an appeal for funding to get her ‘Cook with Me’ packs into homes across the country.
The mum-of-two’s social enterprise is committed to providing affordable and accessible recipe packs for children that will reinforce healthy eating habits from an early age and contribute to the reduction of childhood obesity in the UK.
Now living in Edinburgh, Amber said: “Currently one in five children in the UK starts school overweight or obese. “’Cook with Me – Hands on cooking for your little one’ is committed to reducing this figure. Our social enterprise will provide affordable and accessible healthy recipe packs for children across the UK, aged 18 months to school age, for the use in early years settings or at home.”
Cook with Me is the first official children’s cooking programme that parents or early years settings can implement independently and ten per cent of all profits will be donated to the charity Juno, and the remainder will be used to subsidise sessions and grow the business.
Amber also explained that the evidence supporting good nutrition in early years is clear, with practitioners and public health experts agreeing that giving a child a healthy start in life is vital as nutrition in the early years has consequences across the life course. And she said: “Children love to bake and get creative but finding recipes that are in line with NHS nutritional guidelines can be tricky. Our business has worked to overcome these issues, as each of the recipes have been created to fit in with the Setting the Table document and NHS healthy eating guidelines, meaning they have no added sugar or salt thus promoting a healthy and balanced diet.”
Each ‘Cook with Me’ recipe pack has also been designed to support positive wellbeing and develop numeracy and literacy skills.
