HAVING fun with food was the aim of the day as children from across the county gathered to learn about healthy eating at Maidenhill school.

Around 90 pupils and adults from 16 schools came together to join the national Let’s Get Cooking scheme, which is a network of after school cooking clubs backed by £20 million from the Big Lottery Fund.

Organised by the School Food Trust in partnership with a range of other charities including the Prince’s Trust, the event today, Thursday, December 4, focused on making fresh fruit smoothies and healthy vegetable dips.

So far around 40 Gloucestershire schools have pledged to set up their own clubs, including Maidenhill, Thomas Keble, Sheepscombe Primary and Foxmoor Primary.

Natalie Greenslade, regional club co-ordinator for Let’s Get Cooking, said, "Gloucestershire schools certainly have an appetite for Let's Get Cooking and we were delighted that so many signed up so quickly. “Today is all about getting children, young people and adults cooking together and to start thinking about how their cooking club will run.”

Having first invited primary and secondary schools to sign up for the scheme on a first-come-first-served basis in June, the School Food Trust hopes to set up 5,000 clubs in England by 2010.

The Cotswold chef Rob Rees MBE, who helped out on the day and is a School Food Trust Board member, said: “The whole idea is to get parents and children working side by side to make honest, healthy food.

“It is the right thing for future generations to do, and Let’s Get Cooking has all the knowledge and resources to make communities far healthier.”

For more information about the scheme visit www.letsgetcooking.org.uk.