Nutrition Workshops and
Factsheets for Families
The cost of living crisis has pushed more families into poverty and food banks are struggling to cope with demand. The crisis has made food choices more challenging, and Sarah is keen to work with families to help them to be more aware of cheap nutritious meals that can be made, without having to turn to ready meals. Working with families to offer recipes and top tips, being aware of food waste and learning to love leftovers. Using the freezer and understanding food labels are key areas to saving money.
Eating vegetarian a few times a week, is not only great for the gut and wellbeing but also great for the purse. Learning to enjoy some veggies meals and cook with lentils that are not only high in protein but in fibre and iron too.
NUTRITION SERVICES FOR FAMILIES
How Wise about Food supports families
Wise about Food works with community groups, schools and organisations that supports families to help to support making healthy meals. Sarah works with families to teach them ways to be more savvy with food choices and the way that food is cooked. Time and money are often the biggest hurdles.
Cooking one pot meals are a great way to save money, not only by bulking out the meal using pulses but also cooking in bulk for another day. How the meal is cooked can be a great way to save time and money on fuel through methods such as slow cooking and using induction hobs.
Sarah has worked with many families over the years through Children's centres , Schools, Family Centres, Housing Associations and Domestic abuse.
Nutrition for Families Workshops
The sessions/nutritional workshops that Sarah runs are fun and informative offering a chance to make some tasty nutritious meals, whilst at the same time learning some nutritional and money saving tips, whilst making new friends.
Sarah has worked with many diverse groups such as Working with South Asian Ladies to make healthier meals, supporting families with young children, supporting mums to try new foods when on a budget, supporting families who are reliant on food banks, Mums from ethnic backgrounds keen to cook ‘English food’, Parents and children having fun cooking and supporting mums just to have fun and promote wellbeing.
How it Works
Our Nutritional Workshops for families aim to:
- Provide the chance to try new foods that would not normally havebeen purchased
- Increase in confidence
- Teaching simple cooking skill
- Education around food storage, food labels, in order to save money on food waste
- Introduction to a slow cooker - cheap one pot meals
- Having fun making “fakeaways’
How to fund a Family Nutrition Workshop
If you do not already have funding to run a Family Nutrition Workshop, Wise About Food is a community interest company which means that Sarah is able to apply for grants to run courses for organisations, charities and community groups.
Contact us to discuss your requirements or to discuss
how your workshops could be funded.
HOW TO FUND A FAMILY NUTRITION WORKSHOP
If you do not already have funding to run a Family Nutrition Workshop,
Wise About Food is a Community Interest Company meaning we can
apply for grants on your behalf.
At Wise About Food, we are committed to working with a range of communities and groups to not only help promote nutrition awareness but also to bring people together and to forge friendships.
A grant is money that is available from funders that wants to support work in the community. Being awarded a grant is what enables Wise About Food to carry out the amazing work that it does in the community. To date we have been lucky enough to win a selection of grants that has enabled Sarah to reach a wide selection of the population and has enabled her to make a difference to their lives.
If you’re an organisation or community group and have an idea you would like to talk about, please get in touch to discuss how we can help you.
We’d also love to hear from funders so please get in touch to see how your funding can make a difference!
FIND OUT HOW GRANTS CAN WORK FOR YOU
Nutritional Fact Sheets for Families
Support is offered via a selection of fact sheets that have been produced for Families and Children. Offering down to earth advice around areas that might not have been thought of. Sarah also offers nutritional advice and information on other topics for Families and many other sectors.
Nutrition and Cooking for Families
Fun, practical and completely non-judgemental
Food is one of the most powerful ways to bring people together, build confidence and change lives. But for many families, time and money feel like impossible barriers. These are the questions we hear most often — from families themselves and from the organisations that support them.
Frequently Asked Questions for Families
You start exactly where you are. No judgement, no pressure, no list of expensive ingredients you cannot afford.
The truth is that some of the most nutritious meals you can make are also the cheapest and quickest. A tin of beans on toast. A lentil soup made in one pot. Pasta with frozen vegetables and a tin of tomatoes. These are not compromise meals — they are genuinely good food.
A few things that make a real difference:
- One pot meals are your best friend — one pan, less washing up, cheaper to cook, easy to bulk out with pulses like lentils and beans
- The freezer saves money — batch cook when you have time and freeze in portions
- Frozen and tinned fruit and vegetables are just as nutritious as fresh and much cheaper
- A slow cooker uses less electricity than an oven and turns cheap ingredients into something delicious with almost no effort
If you would like to come to a practical cooking session where you can try new foods, learn some simple skills and meet other people in a relaxed and welcoming environment — get in touch. Sessions are fun, informal and completely non-judgemental.
Contact your local children's centre, family hub or community group to find out if Wise About Food sessions are running near you. Or email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk directly.
Yes — and you deserve to.
Food bank parcels often contain brilliant nutritious staples — tinned tomatoes, beans, lentils, pasta, rice, tinned fish. The challenge is often knowing what to do with them, especially if you are not used to cooking from scratch.
Wise About Food sessions are specifically designed for families who are working with a limited budget and limited store cupboard. No fancy ingredients. No equipment you do not have. Just simple, tasty meals made from what is actually available.
Things we cover in sessions:
- How to make a filling, nutritious meal from tinned and dried ingredients
- Simple recipes that use food bank staples
- How to store food safely to make it last longer and reduce waste
- Reading food labels so you know what is actually in what you are eating
Sessions are welcoming, relaxed and completely free to attend when funded. Get in touch to find out what is available near you.
You are not alone. This is one of the things parents worry about most — and one of the things that is easiest to feel guilty about.
Here is the honest truth: children who grow up eating mostly processed food are not doing so because their parents failed. They are doing so because processed food is designed to be appealing, it is heavily marketed at children, and it is often the quickest and cheapest option when life is busy and difficult.
Change happens slowly and that is fine. A few things that actually work:
- Getting children involved in making food — even very young children will try something they helped to make
- Introducing new foods alongside familiar ones, without pressure or comment
- Making food fun — fakeaways are a brilliant way to recreate favourite meals at home with better ingredients and much less money
- Not making a big deal of it either way — the more pressure around food, the harder it becomes
Wise About Food runs sessions where parents and children cook together. They are lively, relaxed and genuinely fun. Children who will not eat vegetables at home will often try something completely new when they have made it themselves.
Ask your school, children's centre or family hub about cooking sessions for parents and children. Or email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk
Yes. Completely and without question.
Wise About Food sessions are designed for people who are starting from scratch. There is no assumed knowledge, no judgement and no such thing as a silly question. Sarah has worked with people who have never boiled an egg and with people who cook every day. Everyone is welcome.
Sessions have welcomed:
- Families new to the UK who want to learn to cook using local ingredients
- Mums who grew up not cooking and want to change that for their children
- Women who have been through domestic abuse and are starting over
- Families who have relied on ready meals and want to try something different
- South Asian families adapting traditional recipes to be more affordable and nutritious
- Parents who just want a fun morning out with other adults
Every session ends with a meal shared together. That is often the best part.
Get in touch to find out what is on near you or to ask about setting up a session for your community. Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk
Frequently Asked Questions for Organisations and Community Groups
This is exactly the kind of work Wise About Food CIC was built for. And here is how it works:
You say yes. Sarah does everything else.
Sarah brings the knowledge, the session plans, the recipes, the equipment and the ingredients. She designs sessions around your families — their backgrounds, their budgets, their needs and their goals. You provide the people and the space. Sarah handles everything else, including finding the funding to make it happen.
Sessions can be adapted for any group, including:
- Families with young children
- Families from diverse cultural backgrounds
- Families experiencing food poverty or relying on food banks
- Parents and children cooking together
- Women-only groups
- Families in temporary or supported accommodation
Get in touch at sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk to talk through what your families need. No funding required to have the first conversation.
Yes — and this is some of the most important work we do.
For women who have come through domestic abuse, cooking can be deeply complicated. Food may have been a site of control. Kitchen confidence may have been undermined over years. The simple act of choosing what to cook, making it yourself and sharing it with others in a safe space can be genuinely healing.
Wise About Food has experience of working with women in exactly this situation. Sessions are trauma-informed, completely non-judgemental and led by Sarah who understands the sensitivity of this work.
The focus is always on empowerment — building skills, building confidence and building a sense of possibility. Food is the vehicle. What changes is so much more than what people eat.
If you support women through or after domestic abuse and would like to explore what a nutrition and cooking programme might look like, get in touch. Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk
You do not need a budget to get started. You just need to get in touch.
Wise About Food CIC is a community interest company which means Sarah can apply for grants to fund sessions for organisations, charities and community groups. She will ask you a few simple questions about your families and your organisation, handle the application and let you know what is possible.
Funding is available from a range of sources for community nutrition and cooking projects, particularly those that support families experiencing poverty, social isolation, or other vulnerabilities. Sarah knows which funders to approach and how to make a strong case.
You do not need to do anything except say yes and answer a few questions. Sarah brings everything else.
Email sarah@wiseaboutfood.co.uk with a brief description of the families you support and we will take it from there.
Wise About Food CIC is run by Sarah Scotland BSc Nutrition, Exercise and Health (Hons), a community nutritionist based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
Sarah has spent years delivering nutrition and cooking sessions for diverse family groups across children's centres, schools, family hubs, housing associations and community organisations. She is warm, practical, fun and completely jargon-free. She is DBS checked and works in person across Hertfordshire and online UK-wide.
The groups Sarah has worked with include South Asian ladies making healthier versions of traditional meals, mums on tight budgets trying new foods for the first time, families relying on food banks, parents and children cooking together, women from ethnic minority backgrounds learning to cook British food, and women rebuilding their lives after domestic abuse.
Wise About Food is a community interest company. Every penny goes back into the work.
"Food is the appetiser. What we are really about is helping people realise what they are capable of."
Ready to talk?
No pressure. No commitment. Just a conversation.