Smile Together’s oral health campaign Brighter Smiles supported Cornwall Accessible Activities Programme’s (CAAP) budding masterchef contestants in producing some excellent food at Cafe CHAOS in Truro.
Over 5 weeks a group of 14 young people learned to prepare healthy food, under the guidance of renowned chef Sanjay Kumar, outgoing Executive Chef at St Austell Brewery’s County Arms in Truro and mastermind of the School of Cornish Sardines. His work with vulnerable young people in Cornwall over the past 5 years has become legendary and he will be sorely missed when he moves with his family to pastures new.
The judges were Claire Vickers representing the Great Cornish Food Store based at Tregurra Park, who support the work of CAAP and Café CHAOS, Laura Sanders from Spectrum, and Vikki Bendle, Campaign Manager for Brighter Smiles, a new dental health programme for schools and community groups in Cornwall being delivered by Smile Together Dental.
2017 Dental Nurse of the Year, Truro’s Heidi Wyatt, provided contestants with a session on healthy eating and good oral health, helping the young people learn about how to prevent dental decay. She explained: “In Cornwall more 5 to 9 year olds are hospitalised and require a general anaesthetic for tooth extraction than anything else yet this is almost entirely preventable. So when Sanjay asked us to get involved with this collaborative initiative we were over the moon and really hope to continue our work with CAAP in the future”.
CAAP gives young people who face daily challenges the chance to get involved in activities that give them freedom and develop life skills for the future as well as having a huge amount of fun. CAAPs young people did Sanjay proud, delivering healthy, well balanced food. Brighter Smiles were delighted to sponsor the awards with the overall masterchef winner being Liddy.
If you have been inspired to do something similar with your community group, Café CHAOS would love to help and can be contacted at hello@chaosgroupcornwall.co.uk and anyone wishing to engage with the Brighter Smiles Campaign should contact Brighter Smiles.