FFK87: How exploring foods in school can help kids, with Jason O'Rourke

Over the year you will have picked up that the main focus of The Foodies products and content is on building children’s exposure to food without any pressure to eat, and we have had several episodes focussing on how to do that in your own home and with your own kids.But today we are exploring what happens when we take that work into a group setting. So Joanne was very happy to speak to Jason O’Rourke who is a primary headteacher and co-founder (along with food writer Bee Wilson) of a charity called TastEd that gets food education into schools with that same low pressure exploration approach.TastEd uses the Sapere method which helps children to use all of their senses to build familiarity with a food – Sapere literally means “to know” so it’s just about getting to know a wide range of foods, in TastEd they focus primarily on fruits and vegetables. TastEd has two main rules, no one has to like the foods and no one has to try them. It is all about exploration, confidence and trust. This episode discusses why a group setting like a school can be really helpful for children to build their confidence with food.Dr Jason O’Rourke is a nationally recognised expert in food education, school food policy, and children’s health and wellbeing. He advises universities, government bodies and NGOs, serving on the UK Government’s School Food Standards Advisory Board, as a Project Partner on The School Meals Service: Past, Present and Future, and as the UK representative on the European SAPERE Board. He is a member of the All‑Party Parliamentary Group on School Food, a Food for Life Ambassador, and co‑founder of TastEd. As headteacher of Washingborough Academy, Jason has led nationally acclaimed work placing food education at the heart of school life.LInks in this episode:The TasteEd website: www.tasteeducation.comParents' downloads: https://www.tasteeducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/TastEd-Parent-Booklet.pdfJason's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasorourke/Jason's TastEd Co-founder - food writer Bee Wilson: https://www.beewilson.com/Washingborough Academy's Food Education work: https://www.washac.org/our-school/our-food-education/Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat