New initiative at Footprints Women’s Centre wins top healthy eating award

Footprints Women’s Centre is one of seven recipients across Ireland to receive funding aimed at promoting greater access and availability of healthy food to those on low incomes.

Footprints Women’s Centre’s  ‘Building a Transition Community’ initiative is a distinct area of work within the existing Health Living Project and part of the group’s ongoing endeavours to influence change within the Colin community by tackling health inequalities.

Affordable

Funded by Safe Foods, the initiative is the first of its kind in Ireland and aims to address inequalities in access to healthy diets and overcome some of the problems faced by communities in accessing healthy, affordable food.

Martin Higgins, Chief Executive of Safe Foods, said ‘Food poverty is a complex issue and requires a variety of approaches in addressing it. One of these approaches is supporting practical food initiatives in the local community, and encouraging projects to share their experiences and knowledge with others in this area.  By identifying these Community Food Initiatives and the support they require, this programme can help inform future policy development in the area of food poverty’

Volunteer

The Building a Transition Community initiative will oversee the development  of the grounds at Footprints Women’s Centre and will offer skills development and training in growing fruit and vegetables to local residents who will be encouraged to volunteer in the garden.

A local gardener will be hired and will oversee the development and training of the volunteers.  Skills learned by the volunteers will also be transferred to their own gardens at home throughout the Colin neighbourhood.  The aim is also to demonstrate how participation in this project will increase and improve the physical activity level and mental well being of residents. An evaluation of health improvement indicators will be carried out by Health Development workers.

‘Footprints Women’s Centre is delighted to have secured funding for an exciting new venture which will sow the seeds of a sustainable community within the Colin area of West Belfast’ said Gillian Gibson, Centre Director.

‘The Building a Transition Community project will bring skills to women and children, to enable them to plant, maintain and develop fruit and vegetable plots. These are the first steps in bringing about environmental change.’

Locally

The Community Food Initiative will be managed at a local level by Healthy Food for All, an all-island multi-agency initiative seeking to promote healthy food for low-income groups. Marjo Moonen, Chair of Healthy Foods for All, explained that the core aim of their work is to end food poverty in Ireland.

‘As such, it is vitally important that we help make these community food initiatives work locally. We understand the common issues that these seven projects face and can draw on our expertise, from our wide network base, to assist them.

Models

‘We want to use these Community Food Initiatives to inform future developments, creating successful and sustainable models to ensure healthy and affordable food is ultimately available to everyone’

Each community Food Initiative will receive funding annually over a period of three years to set up, manage and sustain their project.