Youngsters in North Wales enjoyed a slice of the action when they showed off their pizza-making skills at a summer cookery workshop.
The workshop at Ysgol y Moelwyn in Blaenau Ffestiniog proved to be a highly popular ingredient in Gwynedd Council’s three-week long Food and Fun activities programme.
Supporting the young cooks were Harlech Foodservice’s business development manager Ursula Scurrah-Price and regional sales controller Dave Roberts.
The family-run company, which supplies Gwynedd schools during term time, donated the ingredients and assisted the children with their culinary creations.
The mini masterchefs were given dough to roll out before spreading tomato sauce and adding a selection of tasty ingredients with a cheesy topping.
They even had a chance to display their artistic flair as they added designs to their own pizza boxes, and had a choice of eating the food there and then or taking it home to their families.
Ursula Scurrah-Price said: “As a company, Harlech really enjoys getting involved in these kinds of community initiatives.
“We donate all the ingredients needed for the pizzas, we stock all the raw materials at Harlech, and bring it all together.
“I go through the process of making a pizza with the children step by step, and the idea is they make it themselves and have fun doing it.
“The activities the children enjoy during the sessions are always fun and healthy and there is a real variety of activities to enjoy.
“The programme has really developed over the years and we are happy to be making this kind of contribution to the community.”
Ursula, who is running pizza sessions at three schools in Gwynedd and three in Denbighshire this summer, added: “Harlech have been doing the sessions for about eight or nine years and I have been personally doing the sessions for about five years.
“It’s great to see the kids enjoying themselves, learning new things and having so much fun.”
Dave Roberts said: “The Food and Fun sessions are such an important community programme.
“There are so many positives to it, including teaching children to cook, which is such a key skill, a skill for life.
“And another positive is that parents have childcare within the school during the holidays.
“It also teaches them about food supply and supporting local Welsh producers.
“It is really important, as a Welsh business and based locally, that we try to buy as many products as we can from Wales and its producers.
“It is about shortening the supply chain and supporting local producers, helping local farmers, communities and businesses, and keeping the pound in Wales.”
Children attending the programme start their day with a healthy breakfast, take part in the activity of the day and then enjoy a healthy lunch before heading home.
The youngsters were helped in putting their pizzas together by Ysgol y Moelwyn teaching assistants Lisa Thomas, Marion Hughes and Cai Williams.
Lisa said an added advantage of running the programme was that it gave youngsters who would be joining the secondary school in September a chance to get used to the premises and meet new friends.
She said: “A lot of the children here are coming up from Year 6 at their primary schools and will be Year 7 students here in September, so these sessions get them used to this school.
“It helps give them confidence if they are a bit anxious about coming to a new school, and also a chance to make friends because they are coming from different primary schools, there are six different primary schools in our area.
“The Food and Fun sessions run for 12 days over three weeks and it gets them out of the house and off their screens and they are learning new skills, socialising and enjoying different activities.
“Harlech’s support for the programme is wonderful, you can’t fault them.
“They are an amazing company anyway, they supply the school kitchen and work very closely with us and meet our every need as a school.”
Food and Fun programme coordinator for Gwynedd Council Elliw Lewis Jones thanked Harlech Foodservice for supporting the Welsh Government-backed initiative.
She said: “All I can do really is thank Harlech because they have been very, very supportive of the programme.
“It is nice to show the children that food like pizzas can be homemade using nutritious ingredients, and they can have fun doing it, rather than just throwing a frozen pizza in to the oven.”
The pizzas went down a treat with the children.
Cory, 11, said: “Making the pizzas was really good, I added a lot of ingredients to mine including sweetcorn, chicken, peppers and mushroom.”
Eleven-year-old Maisie said: “I enjoyed making the pizzas, it has been really good fun.
“I have made them before, but not in a school, and have put sweetcorn and pineapple on mine.
“I have been at Food and Fun every day and it’s been good.”
Beca, 11, said: “Making the pizzas was a lot of fun.”
“I have made them before, in Italy on holiday, and at home, and really like them.”
