A healthy community - it's your business

Why? Because failing to address poor nutrition, obesity and related illness affects everyone. There are serious consequences for each individual's health and well-being, a cost to society and government. Unhealthy employees also means unhealthy business.

Premature deaths among obese employees costs companies £1.1 billion a year and a further £1.45 billion due to 18 million days of sick leave.

The issue

Businesses are coming under increasing pressure from customers and the government to play a role in fighting health inequalities in the UK, and around the world. The role of business in tackling malnutrition and obesity, and the public health agenda, is a key driver of public opinion and central to debate throughout the world.

Poor nutrition and obesity are nation-wide health epidemics, and the causes are varied and complex. There is something businesses can do to help young people, their families, employees and communities understand the importance of a good diet, the fun of cooking and the joy of eating together.

The aims of Let's Get Cooking

Let's Get Cooking is a new national network of healthy cooking clubs for children, parents and communities backed by £20 million from the Big Lottery Fund. Let’s Get Cooking is using the Lottery money to set up the first 5,000 school-based clubs in England by 2010.

Let's Get Cooking is giving children, parents, employees and local communities the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge about cooking and eating healthy food. Working closely with schools, the government and businesses, Let's Get Cooking focuses on reaching the most disadvantaged communities.

Let's Get Cooking has three key targets:

To teach over 1 million people  new cooking skills.

70% of the programme's participants will replicate at home the new healthy food preparation skills they have learnt.
50% of children, young people and families who participate in Let’s Get Cooking will increase their intake of nutritionally healthy food.

How the programme works in practice

During the first three years of the programme, 2007 to 2010, Let's Get Cooking is writing to every school in England to invite them to apply to join the programme*.

Every six months Let's Get Cooking signs up around 450 schools nationally or 50 clubs in each region. Have a look at the Let's Get Cooking: Clubs locations to learn when Let's Get Cooking is coming to your area and how many clubs will be running.

*Let's Get Cooking is only operational in the nine government regions in England.