The fifth experiment

Intergenerational cooking sessions

The experiment aims to bring young and old people together to cook together. Our target group is children of the 4th grade, 10-11 year-olds and elderly people from the residential care centre. This took place in the community centre, so there was a primary school and two residential care centres involved. 
Creating intergenerational links can foster a sense of community and belonging. This can lead to a greater sense of social support and reduce loneliness in both older and younger individuals.
 

The main concepts and hypotheses tested were as follows:
(1) does intergenerational cooking bring added value to both children and the elderly?
(2) what added value does it bring them to cook together? 
(3) what added value does the community centre bring to having different age groups of the area together?
 

To test the above hypotheses, we organised three sessions of intergenerational cooking. This on Thursday afternoons, three weeks apart. Both the elderly and children came together for three afternoons to cook (healthy) meals together. After the cooking session, they also ate what they prepared together. 

Management, organisation and responsibilities
(1) the community centre provided volunteers who helped prepare the room and cooking equipment. The cooking sessions took place at the community centre, they provided the venue with kitchen and cooking materials.
(2) the primary school teachers prepared the students in class for what to do. They also helped in the cooking session for support. 
(3) the educators at the residential care home chose the elderly who were most in need of attending the cooking sessions, but who were also capable of coming along and interacting with the young people. 
(4) Both the children and elders cooked together and helped clean up.

Resources, person months, other costs
The costs incurred were the cost of the ingredients we cooked with.
Support for the cooking sessions was provided by volunteers from the community centre, teachers of the children and educators/ergotherapists from the residential care centre. They also arranged transport and relocation.