3,500 Birmingham students discover the joy of healthy eating with Michelin-trained chef and internet sensation, Poppy Cooks

The self-titled Potato Queen, Poppy Cooks, has hosted a unique cookery lesson with more than 3,500 school children across Birmingham as part of the Health for Life® programme.

The Health for Life ‘Cookathon’ saw 3,521 Birmingham pupils from 50 schools swapping their pens for pans to learn the importance of healthy eating while learning and developing essential culinary skills.

As part of the Cookathon, Poppy joined students at Manor Park Primary in Aston for an in-person cookery demo, using new cooking equipment funded by Health for Life, including induction hobs, pans and chopping boards. Meanwhile, thousands of other students from Birmingham schools joined in, cooking along via a special step-by-step tutorial video, which Poppy recorded.

Poppy, who is renowned for creating easy-to-follow recipes, designed a delicious ‘pea and broccoli alfredo’ recipe for this year’s Cookathon, which taught pupils key skills such as how to mince garlic, blanch broccoli and grate cheese. The Potato Queen’s recipe isn’t only available to pupils but also to families across the region who are invited to get involved and create the tasty dish at home by following the step-by-step video, which can be viewed via Services for Education.

This year marks Poppy’s second consecutive year as the lead of the Health for Life Cookathon, and over the past two years she has inspired and taught more than 6,800 pupils in Birmingham how to create healthy dishes.

Health for Life, created and funded by Mondelēz International, is delivered in Birmingham-based schools by Services For Education. It has been running for 13 years and has reached over 250,000 people across the city.

The programme provides support and resources to schools, focusing on healthy eating, physical activity and growing food, with pupils learning how to cook and grow their own fruit and vegetables which encourages them to lead a healthy lifestyle. Cookathon is an annual campaign which encourages everyone to join in making a healthy recipe.

Poppy is a Bromsgrove-born Michelin-trained chef and best-selling author, with over 5.5 million followers on social media. She is well known for her appearances on ITV’s Cooking With The Stars and BBC Three’s Young MasterChef, and her latest release, The Potato Book, is a Sunday Times bestseller.

Poppy comments: “I’m delighted to have been part of the Cookathon again this year! It’s been fantastic to hear the impact the initiative has had on school pupils across our wonderful city and beyond in the past two years, and I’m incredibly proud to be a part of the scheme, which aims to inspire children to explore cooking and healthy eating from an early age.”

Christine Chapman, headteacher at Manor Park Primary, commented: “It has been truly fantastic for some of our young students to cook alongside Poppy in person and an experience which I’m confident they’ll remember for many years to come. We’ve been delighted to take part in Health for Life, and this latest opportunity inspires our pupils to continue learning and building their cooking and culinary skills, and adopting a healthy lifestyle through the nutritious meals they create.”

Helen Grundy, education advisor at Services For Education, added: “The Cookathon campaign has grown incredibly over the last couple of years, and Poppy has played a pivotal role in taking it to new heights across local schools as our lead chef.

“This year, we’ve reached another record-breaking number of young participants all cooking along to the same recipe at the same time, inspiring even more young people to embrace the joy of cooking and living healthily.”

For more information and to watch and cook Poppy’s recipe from home, visit link.