About Wise About Food
Sarah Scotland has always loved cooking, from helping her mum in the kitchen to making the Christmas cake with her nanna. Exploring and experimenting with new or different foods was always fun! But Sarah’s career didn’t start off in Nutrition, it was in marketing before becoming a full time mum. Sarah holds her hands up and admits that she was a mum that gave her children frubes and chicken nuggets, but also fresh mackerel and chicken mulligatawny.
Deciding on a new career once the children were older was not a difficult choice, nutrition was high on the list and a long climb began to reach that goal - a degree in Nutrition, Exercise and Health
Wise About Food has been providing workshops for over 15 years. Sarah’s work has led her to working with wonderful people in the community. Sarah’s enthusiasm to educate the community about how to make simple changes, the implications of feeding children processed foods and good basic nutrition have proven hugely popular. All learning from each other and sharing information that’s helpful and informative.
Working with local authorities to deliver the Meet and Eat workshops has been a real passion project. Starting in sheltered housing the workshops are now run in a variety of venues, reaching out to different groups and communities.
Another passion project that’s grown and grown is delivering workshops for the SEND community. Sarah was so taken by how quickly cooking and being together could alter confidence and enable the growth of vital skills, that she reached out to other groups. Supported activities is a group based in Stevenage. Together with North Herts Council, Sarah has now been running cooking sessions for them every month for the last 12 years!
Sarah Scotland, Nutritionist
Working in Hertfordshire has enabled Sarah to build a network, and feels lucky she is able to support Carers in Herts. This enabled a grant to be won and a course to run online during lockdown to support not just cooking but mental health and isolation. This relationship has carried on with more courses being offered in different locations and reached some wonderful people.
Wise About Food is always looking to work with new groups to help make easy nutrition accessible for all. Working with One Housing has certainly been the case. Working with young people, the homeless and those living with mental health has made Sarah very much aware of how important support is. Offering simple cooking sessions with a bit of nutrition can make such a difference to a person’s life. It is not just about the cooking, it’s the friendships, the interaction, the confidence and the enjoyment that goes all together.
Testimonials
Wise About Food works with a wide range of clients to attain grants to run a number of nutritional meet and eat workshops, here’s a small selection of feed back from both organisations and meet and eat workshops we have run once grant funding has been secured.
“Sarah is passionate about food and people, the way in which she works alongside a range of ages including children and families, younger and older generations, is visible through the healthy and fantastic tasting food she helps all ages enjoy. At East Herts Council she has used her nutritionist knowledge to work with a diverse range of groups, allowing them to develop new cooking skills and connect with positive food experiences so a healthier lifestyle can be consistently achieved.”
Simon Barfoot, Health and Wellbeing Project Co-Ordinator
“The dynamics of delivering activities and reaching out to people have had to change during the recent period of lockdown and Sarah has seamlessly taken up the challenge to enable the Healthy Hub to continue to provide information and advice to inspire and create a culture of healthy eating. Thank you, Sarah, for supporting ASCEND and the Healthy Hub during this difficult time - we are looking forward to continuing our relationship to inspire our visitors with other Healthy Hub projects.”
Jane Drury, Healthy Hub Officer at ASCEND
“I have worked with Sarah on a number of cooking projects and cannot fault her knowledge, dedication, and warmth when it comes to sharing her love of food and nutrition with others. Because Sarah is very hands on and involves everyone in the group, she has helped to foster independence, reduce feelings of loneliness, and provided a variety of cost-effective food preparation methods.”
Tina, Group leader, Assura Community Fund
“Great workshop that offered a wonderful blend of insightful tips, delicious recipes and motivating discussions.”
Joanna, Participant, One Housing
“It’s the easy-breeziness of it that it’s ok if it doesn’t turn out well & that’s on me, which normally makes it stressful. I feel I’ve got more accountability in the kitchen as if things go wrong Sarah has shown me how to come up with something else or use something else. I think we’ll have more nutrition now.”
Participant, Homestart
“Sarah has come to our Day Centre for adults with learning disabilities a few times now, originally for a six week course but we have now secured six more sessions, which is brilliant! The people we support can’t wait for the next session.
She is engaging, remembers everyone’s names and focuses on them individually with the cooking skills that they may need more support with, all of which can be transferred to home. Recipes are simple to follow, full of flavour, healthy and low cost to recreate. Who could ask for more! Sarah adapts recipes as needed to specific themes.
The people we support have absolutely loved these sessions, they don’t want them to come to an end. Some have eaten food that they would never usually eat and asked for more! Sarah has proved to be a big hit with all of us with her friendly approach and depth of knowledge in her field. We would all highly recommend her services.”
Jo, Drill Hall Day Centre for Adults with Learning Difficulties