Celebrity chef, author and food campaigner Prue Leith has become the patron of the country’s leading voice on children’s food.

The Children’s Food Trust’s Let’s Get Cooking programme welcomes Prue as its patron as it continues its campaign to see more children eating better.

Prue said: “If food education was part of every child’s curriculum at school, so that every child was taught about food, learned to cook, and was encouraged to eat a decent diet, we’d go a long way to solving the obesity problem in the space of one generation. Children who live on junk food and snacks are at a disadvantage from the start. We are risking their health and that is nothing short of shameful.”

She continued: “Of course there are headteachers who recognise children need to be properly fed to do well and they see that their pupils all learn to cook. But some schools struggle with tight budgets, tight timetables, parents who themselves don’t recognise the value of a good diet and inadequate facilities. For them a Let’s Get Cooking club can be a boon. They know that the food will be good and healthy, the teaching will be excellent, and the children will enjoy it.”

Let’s Get Cooking has the largest network of cooking clubs in schools in the UK. For more information visit www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/lets-get-cooking/.