Littlehampton’s Mark gives pop star stellar lunch tips

Mark Northeast, founder of Funky Lunch, has risen to national acclaim for his imaginative designs to help entice youngsters to tuck into healthy snacks for lunch.

Now, yoghurt drink company Actimel has called on the 41-year-old’s help to back the company’s new range of children’s drinks called Actimel for Kids.

The campaign, which launched last month, saw Mark teaching pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor how to design tasty treats to not only fill little stomachs but capture youngsters’ imaginations.

And there was plenty for the duo to talk about during their time together, which was filmed by Actimel.

Mark, of Meadow Way, said: “It was such a great day and experience. Sophie was so down to earth and really got involved in the filming and creating the recipes with me – under my instruction, of course.

“As a mum of three boys, her eldest a similar age to my son Oscar, we found it easy to talk on camera and discuss the eating habits of our kids.”

Mark led Sophie through a series of small workshops. Together, they created a stellar selection of lunch box meals, from a melon solar system to a scrambled-egg moon with toasted stars.

Speaking during the video, Sophie said: “I’m really impressed with these designs because I think it can be quite a challenge to get your children to eat things that are really healthy but you haven’t got hours to spend in the kitchen to make them look so fun.

“But all of these designs are really quick and I think the kids will get really involved in what they’re eating.”

Mark added: “In true showbiz style, I managed to grab a selfie at the end of the day and she even tweeted me later that evening to apologise that her toasted stars were ‘a bit rubbish’.”

As part of the product launch, he was also asked to run a creative food workshop in central London – assisted by his daughter Izzy, 11 – for a select number of bloggers and their children.

The videos showing all the work of Mark and Sophie have been posted on the ActimelUK’s Facebook page.