ICP Networks have teamed up with TV chef Jamie Oliver and Manchester City to support Food Revolution Day.

The IT and networking supply specialists joined the City in the Community team and students from Crossacres Primary School in Manchester school for a healthy eating lesson as part of the foundation’s ‘Strike a Balance’ programme.

CITC‘s ‘Strike a Balance’ program helps to educate thousands of youngsters in the Greater Manchester region about the benefits of healthy eating using tablets donated to them by ICP Networks.

And to celebrate Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day and City’s partnership with Jamie’s Ministry of Food the youngsters took part in an afternoon work shop before trying their hand at this year’s Food Revolution Day recipe the ‘Squash It Sandwich.’

Matt Archer and Les ‘Chappy’ Chapman, the former Manchester City kit-man but now star of City TV joined the class and hopefully helped the youngsters as they prepared their stunning sandwiches!

Opportunity

Matt said: “It was great to see the Strike a Balance program in action and to get an opportunity to test the app CITC have developed using our tablets.

“It is a wonderful simply idea but the benefits for the children taking part are obvious. To be able to take a subject that most youngsters might otherwise not naturally take too and turn into a fun event that delivers a message which may otherwise have been lost.

“The players have supported the program and for a youngster to be able to follow in the footsteps of their heroes is a great idea. They wear their kit, they copy their hairstyles and if they copy their dietary program it follows that they will become far healthier.”

The Year 4 and 5 students listened intently as Joshua Black, of the CITC’s resident cooks delivered a first class lesson, describing the ingredients and talking the youngsters through the step-by-step process.

Les ‘Chappy’ Chapman couldn’t resist having a bit of fun as he and a group of children took some of the ingredients and created a face – we think of Jamie Oliver!

Inspired

City in the Community teamed up with Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food to spice up their Strike a Balance programme and provide Manchester’s Primary School children with even more cooking knowledge than before and having spent the summer enhancing their teaching skills in the kitchen with Jamie’s team, CITC are passing on their new cooking knowledge to youngsters across Manchester.

Mike Green, Head of City in the Community, declared: “We are very proud of our Strike a Balance programme and with the support of Jamie Oliver’s Food Foundation, Healthy Schools and ICP Networks, it’s great to see the positive impact the programme is having on the health of our local community.

“Jamie Oliver’s recipes are world-class and really demonstrate how exciting healthy eating can be. The 22 schools who take part in the programme benefit from weekly workshops covering a range of topics from the importance of a balanced diet to how to cook healthy meals. After each class, they also get to enjoy a football session teaching them that both diet and exercise are essential to a healthy lifestyle.”

To find out more about Food Revolution Day and can get involved, click here.