Meet the chef who volunteers to teach children how to cook healthy food in his spare time

A chef from Sunderland, Geoff Rutherford, 30 is working alongside St Paul’s Church of England Primary School to deliver a school cookery club that teaches their students basic culinary skills.

Geoff, who works at the Alexandra Steakhouse has been working for more than 18 months to try and get the programme up and running, and is now voluntarily giving up his time to go into the school for the sessions.

He said: “I want kids to get excited about food – I want to show them that they can make healthy and tasty meals using fresh produce.

“I love getting involved with the kids and sharing what I’ve learnt with them – it’s great seeing the kids learn something exciting and tasting the fresh foods.

“There are some kids these days who don’t even know how to boil an egg, these sessions are a chance for me to comeback after everything I’ve learnt and teach them important skills.

“We didn’t have things like this available to us when I was a kid – they absolutely love it.”

Sunderland City Council has given St Paul’s CE Primary School, £1,300 from the Community Chest to buy new equipment for the school, including pots and pans, hot plates and measuring jugs.

The Headteacher at St Paul’s CE Primary School, Lisa Quinn-Briton, said: “We are absolutely over the moon to work with Geoff and The Alexandra Steakhouse to create an exciting cookery club for St. Paul’s children. We are working towards achieving the Healthy School Award and I feel it is extremely important for children to learn life skills such as this in preparation for adulthood.

“It is wonderful to see our children so enthused about making meals using fresh ingredients and I want to also thank the community chest for helping us with set up costs.”