‘Swop Shop’ with SASH Active
February half term saw 20 Young People in the Yorkshire Coast region take part in the SASH Active Swop Shop – an activity focused on exploring different food brands as part of the SASH Active programme of events. SASH Active offers experiences and opportunities that connect supported young people with other members of their community through volunteering projects and residential trips. Young people also get the chance to develop new independent living skills through workshops – and more recently – via a series of virtual activities. They can test themselves to the limit, visiting new places or discovering new things to do.
SASH Young Person’s Coordinators Tiff and Caroline, who work in the Yorkshire Coast area, ran the event helping young people explore their relationship with branded food items. Kellogg’s cereal, Heinz baked beans, Dairy Milk chocolate, Lucozade sports drink and Walkers salt and vinegar crisps were all compared with supermarket own-brand items in a blind taste test.
Young Person’s Coordinator, Caroline, prepared the products
Due to COVID-19 restrictions young people all took part in the activity at home with their SASH Hosts after the Young Person Coordinators had safely prepped the food and delivered it in advance.
As well as being encouraged to try new foods, young people were asked to consider the price differences between the products with a view to saving money on their weekly shop. Supported young person Cody said: “Brand isn’t always best, it’s about taste and value, you’ll have more money to yourself [if you buy supermarket brands].”
Our fabulous SASH Hosts were really happy to get involved and fed back to us that the activity was a good way to spend time with and speak to the young people they host on a more general level as well as completing the task together.
‘Swop shop’ score sheet
Results of the taste test were varied but all of the young people agreed that it was a fun task to complete with their hosts, especially during a period of national lockdown.