Popular street food server 'chugs' into school meal project

Sunday 04 August 2019

The owner of a popular local street food van has 'chugged' onto a new challenge: dishing up delicious and nutritious hot meals to local schoolchildren.

Sarah Copp, who is behind the Chugging Pig, has been named as the Head Chef of the team delivering 'Flourish' - a programme aiming to provide balanced meals at Samarès and Janvrin schools as part of a £200,000 two-year pilot.

Local charity Caring Cooks partnered with officers from Children, Young People, Education and Skills (CYPES) and other areas of government to launch the project.

It will cost £2.50 for a main meal, dessert and drink, and some children will be eligible for a free meal.

Pictured: One of the nutritious dishes cooked up by Sarah for the children.

Sarah will be the one dishing up the nutritious food, having been approached by Caring Cooks CEO, Melissa Nobrega, to take on the role of Head Chef.

“This is something I feel very strongly about,” she explained.  

“Children work better in the afternoon if they have a good lunch. Children should not be going to school without food. We are a rich island, and children should not be getting to school without any food.

“There are many reasons why not all parents can do it. Some children do not like cold lunches and some families find it hard to make ends meet.”

Pictured: Sarah says some parents sometimes can't afford food for their children.

“My husband and I are very lucky that we can feed our daughter healthy food - well, as much a 13-year-old would eat anyway!” Sarah adds. “I wanted to give something back to the island at this stage of my life.” 

Sarah has put her culinary experience to good use to develop the recipes put forward by the Caring Cooks CEO, although she admits it was hard to go from a restaurant-minded approach to cooking up meals for children. 

“It stretches your mind!” she says jokingly, before noting that the feedback from the very first tasting session earlier this week was very good. She was especially pleased to see that children were “fooled” by her peas and tomato pizza, as they refused to believe there were any vegetables in it.

However, Sarah is keen to not hide so much in the future, so that children can develop their taste and start eating more vegetables. 

Pictured: Sarah and her van, which she still drives to private events.

Although she can’t give up her beloved van – which she will continue to drive around to private events – Sarah says she is looking forward to the new challenge. Passionate about providing nutritious meals to children, she is also hugely supportive of Caring Cooks’ ‘Let’s Get Cooking' programme.

“I think there is at least one generation or two of parents who do not know how to cook. Even cooking classes in schools are not putting enough emphasis on basic skills. 

“Instead of learning how to make pizza with a packet of sauce, children should learn how to make a basic tomato sauce that they are going to carry with them their whole life.”

Sarah is therefore encouraging local restaurants, cafés and businesses to support the charity’s latest fundraising campaign, ‘Who gives a fork?’ (WGAF).

Running annually between October and December, the campaign will see supporting businesses ask their clients to add £1 to their bill to donate to Caring Cooks. The funds will go towards helping Caring Cooks run their programmes - the Weekly Meal Service, Kitchen Garden Project, Let’s Get Cooking Programme as well as Flourish, and expand its services. 

The charity currently supports nearly 1,500 children every year, but is aiming big for the future and wants to support all 7,000 children in Jersey, as well as their families.

“If 100 restaurants in Jersey support WGAF with on average 20 tables per evening donating just £1 running for three months we hope we will have a wonderful fundraising menu and could raise the much-needed funding to continue our incredible work in Jersey,” CEO Melissa explained.

“In return Caring Cooks will promote all WGAF establishments using our social media channels and newsletters to share menus, support promotions and increase Christmas event bookings as a thank you for your involvement.”

Pictured: In the last 12 months Caring Cooks have supported 54 families with over 1,500 meals each week through their Weekly Meal Service.

Supporting Caring Cooks will not only help the nutritious programs develop but could also spark new careers.

“It could show children this could be another job for them. If you can get them interested at that age, who knows? There might a budding little chef somewhere.”