Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott has teamed up with Dame Kelly Holmes’ "On Camp with Kelly" initiative supported by Aviva to educate athletes and young people attending university about the importance of good nutrition for physical and mental performance.
Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott has teamed up with Dame Kelly Holmes’ "On Camp with Kelly" initiative supported by Aviva to educate athletes and young people attending university about the importance of good nutrition for physical and mental performance.
To help the commonly known "Pot Noodle generation", Ainsley will be at University College Birmingham on Saturday 10 of October taking the "On Camp with Kelly" athletes through cooking demonstrations and providing recipes to cook quick, cheap and healthy dishes.
The aim is to give the athletes a better understanding of how to cook nutritious meals, enabling them to refuel properly after training and competition. Ainsley will also be teaching essential practical cooking skills to help them through their student life. The athletes will then undergo their own challenge by each preparing and cooking the dishes that have been demonstrated themselves.
Dame Kelly says: "Over the past six years of running my 'On Camp with Kelly' initiative, I have become aware of the issues faced by talented athletes who go away to university with limited cooking skills and insufficient knowledge of preparing nutritious meals on a budget, which ultimately is detrimental to their health and performance as sports people.
"For that reason I decided to host this Get-Together, supported by Aviva, where the 'On Camp with Kelly' athletes will not only benefit now but gain valuable life skills for the future. I am delighted to have the assistance of Ainsley Harriott in this, whom I am sure will pass on the best skills in a simple effective energetic way, as well as to have the use of the excellent facilities at University College Birmingham.”
Ainsley adds: “Cooking nutritious and tasty meals doesn’t need to cost the earth and can be done without dramatically altering students’ busy social and sporting schedules. I am really pleased to be involved in educating the athletes on the ‘On Camp with Kelly’ initiative, supported by Aviva, as I feel a few simple food preparation skills and quick and easy recipes can transform students’ relationship with food and provide essential nutritional information which often can be forgotten when young people flee the nest.”
The "On Camp with Kelly" initiative, which has been supported by Aviva since 2004, provides 800m and 1,500m athletes and their coaches with the unique opportunity to benefit from the personal mentoring from Dame Kelly Holmes as well as educational get-together and camps and medical and other financial support.
This educational "Eat for Success" Get-Together with Ainsley Harriott aims to broaden the athletes’ experience, teaching them to take responsibility for the food they eat and also support those making the transition from home to university whilst still maintaining a high level of training and competition.
Sue Helmont, head of advertising & media at Aviva Life Insurance, said: “We are proud to support these young athletes and believe it’s important for young people to understand the importance of good nutrition and how detrimental it can be to their health if neglected. We are thrilled that Ainsley Harriott has teamed up with Kelly Holmes for this unique educational experience. As the team behind UK Athletics we look forward to seeing the positive impact on our next generation of British medal winners”.
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Notes to editors:
About ‘On Camp with Kelly’
"On Camp with Kelly" (OCWK) was started by double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes in January 2004 and with support and sponsorship from Aviva has grown from strength to strength. Over 60 athletes have been involved in the initiative to date.
Dame Kelly set up OCWK because she wanted to help talented young female middle distance athletes to achieve their dreams. Her vision of OCWK was that it should be an educational development programme so that the athletes who are part of it gain life experiences as well as learn what it takes to become a world class athlete. Since 2008 15 talented young male athletes have also been involved in the initiative.
Eight girls were given the opportunity to participate in the first OCWK camp in South Africa in October 2004 and since then there have been regular Get-Togethers, a training camp in Spain, camps in Melbourne during the 2006 Commonwealth Games and at the GB Team Preparation Camp in Portugal and the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in 2009. OCWK athletes also have the opportunity to race in international meetings across the UK and Europe and benefit from mentoring from Dame Kelly as well as medical and financial support funded by Aviva.
For more information about "On Camp with Kelly" visit oncampwithkelly.co.uk
"On Camp with Kelly" would like to thank Sainsbury's Active Kids and the Oldbury store for supplying the ingredients for the "Eat for Success" Get-Together.
About Aviva
Aviva has been the team behind UK Athletics since 1999 and is committed to developing the sport at every level from the playground to the podium.
This year we’ll have put on six world class athletics events on home soil and supported the Aviva GB & NI Team as they prepare for major championships. Through the Aviva UKA Academy it is anticipated that by 2012, we’ll have given every child in the UK the opportunity to get involved in athletics.
Aviva is the world’s fifth largest* insurance group, serving 50 million customers across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
We are the largest insurance services provider in the UK and one of the leading providers of life and pension products in Europe.
The Aviva media centre at www.aviva.com/media includes images, company and product information and a news release archive.
For more information on our athletics sponsorship visit www.aviva.co.uk/athletics/.
About University College Birmingham
UCB undergraduate and vocational courses include culinary arts and hospitality management, training to be a chef, food management, sports therapy and sports management. The Student Guild offer a variety of different sporting activities and there is a fully equipped fitness suite on campus and a sports hall at the halls of residence for students.
For more information visit www.ucb.ac.uk.