Fresh Ingredients, Fresh Opportunities

This summer, Aura Up delivered two projects, one for girls and one for boys, in response to local demand.

A key focus of this summer’s programme was promoting healthy eating, healthy lifestyles and positive behaviours. To embed this throughout the programme, the Aura Up team delivered a series of interactive healthy eating workshops, including sandwich making, the Full of Beans project and The Tasting Box project.

Aura Up also secured a wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables through Birmingham Wholesale Market and Fareshare. Fresh produce was delivered each day for the girls’ group, providing the opportunity to learn about different foods, including ingredients they had not seen or used before. They explored how to use the produce in recipes and learned about its nutritional benefits.

The boys’ group took part in the Full of Beans project, exploring why beans and pulses are good for both their health and the planet. This was followed by a hands-on cooking workshop using freshly grown beans, lentils and chickpeas.

Every young person had the opportunity to get involved. As part of the Full of Beans project, several young people were also interviewed for the BBC Good Food Guide podcast, due to air in September 2026.

Young People’s Response

The girls were particularly excited to see the fresh produce arrive each day and enjoyed learning about unfamiliar ingredients. The boys were surprised by how good the beans and pulses tasted, with some young people going home and trying recipes themselves.

The girls described the sessions as fun, interactive and different from anything they had experienced in other holiday programmes.

Engaging Families at Home

The take-home project was a new addition this summer and helped strengthen engagement with parents and families. Young people were given ingredients to take home and encouraged to prepare a meal with their family, with parents invited to send in a photograph of what they had made.

The Full of Beans resources also supported families to try different recipes together at home, helping to extend the learning beyond the programme sessions.

The Impact of Fresh Produce

Having access to fresh fruit and vegetables made a significant difference to the programme. It generated curiosity among young people and gave coaches something tangible to work with, rather than discussing healthy eating as a general concept.

Having access to both fresh and surplus produce enabled the Aura Up team to have a wider range of conversations with young people about food, nutrition and sustainability. Their experience showed that access to high-quality produce can increase excitement and willingness to try new foods.

The variety of colours, textures and freshness of the fruit and vegetables also made the produce particularly appealing to young people.

Building Staff Confidence and Capacity

The programme has also helped Aura Up strengthen its approach to healthy eating within the HAF programme. Coaches and staff have become more confident in delivering healthy eating sessions, supported by high-quality resources, fresh produce and the structure provided through the Hakuna Fruitata workshops.

“As an organisation, we have been able to significantly develop this area of the HAF programme. Coaches and staff are much more confident to deliver healthy eating sessions. This has been really helped by having high-quality resources, the produce of course, but also the structure and support to deliver Hakuna Fruitata workshops. This means we can offer high-quality, interactive and practical sessions that our young people engage enthusiastically in and benefit so much from.”
— Aura Up