Make tasty rainbow fruit skewers

You’ll need

Chopping boards
Knives
Wooden skewers
Plates
A selection of fruit
Disinfectant spray

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Planning this activity

Remember to check for allergies, eating problems or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you've checked everyone's dietary requirements and allergies then adapted the recipe as appropriate. This may include ensuring no cross-contamination during food storage, preparation and serving, too.  Check if there are any items of food (or packaging) that people can’t touch or be near to or if there are items that people might not be comfortable using in the activity. 
Wash your hands and wipe down the surfaces you’ll use with disinfectant spray. Remember to follow good food hygiene and safety practices.
Wash the fruit. You want a selection of colourful fruits. For example, easy peel citrus fruits, bananas, strawberries, blueberries and grapes.

Talk about fruit

Gather everyone together in a circle. Ask everyone why they think it’s important to eat lots of fruits and vegetables.
Explain that different fruits and vegetables have different vitamins that we need to stay strong and healthy, especially while we grow.
Tell everyone that fruit skewers are a great way to eat fruit. We can make them using fruits we know, as well as fruits we haven’t tried yet.

Make fruit skewers

Everyone should wash their hands, then get into smaller groups. There should be at least one adult volunteer or young leader per group.
Everyone should look at all of the fruits available, then think about what they’d like to put on their skewer. They could try to make it colourful and tasty. Why not make it like a rainbow?
Now, everyone’s going to chop the fruit for the skewers. Demonstrate and teach everyone how to peel the fruit, then slice or chop it. You should lay the fruit on a chopping board and hold the knife firmly by the handle. Next, hold the fruit with the other hand in a claw shape, keeping their fingers out of the way of the blade. Then slowly press down on the knife to chop or slice the fruit.
When they’re ready, everyone should help to prepare the fruits. Some may need peeling and some will need slicing and chopping into bite-sized chunks.
With adult supervision, everyone should have a go at slicing with the table knife, again keeping their fingers out of the way of the blade.
Some fruit goes brown when it’s exposed to air, such as bananas. Slice these fruits, then place them in a bowl and mix it orange juice to help it stay fresh while you prepare all the fruit and make the skewers.
Once everything’s been chopped, get people to put pieces of fruit on their skewer, sliding each piece down to the bottom. Remember to leave enough skewer to hold on to.
Encourage people to use a variety of fruits, including ones they haven’t tried before. They could cut the ones they haven’t tried smaller pieces of fruit if they’re not sure.
Remember, no-one should be forced to try any fruit they don’t want to if they’re unsure or uncomfortable.
To make a rainbow, people could use a strawberry, orange segment, banana slice, green grape, blueberry and purple grape.
Once finished, everyone should put their skewer on a plate, before giving it a try!

Reflection

This activity helped everyone to think about how they can live healthily. As everyone enjoys eating their fruit skewers, ask everyone why fruit is important.

Some people might think about fruit being a great way to get vitamins and fibre, people may also say about it being part of a balanced diet and others may say because it tastes nice.

Everyone should share ideas of ways to add more fruit to the meals they eat already. For example, people could add chopped fruit to breakfast cereal, put a piece of fruit in their packed lunch, or make another fruit skewer at home.

This activity was also a great chance for people to try new things. Anyone who tried a new fruit could share how they felt before they tried it – maybe they were curious, excited, or even a bit nervous?

It can feel uncomfortable to try new things and easier to stick to what we know, but when we try new things we can find new favourites (plus, it’s important to stay healthy).

Did people find it easier to try new things when they were with friends? It sometimes takes us more than one try to get used to new tastes and textures, so it’s OK if people found some things a bit odd.

Everyone should make sure they say well done to anyone who tried something new.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Sharp objects: Teach young people how to use sharp objects safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
Food: Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.