Professional

Location: Belfast

The aim of the East Belfast Mission Healthy Eating Education Programme is to provide healthy nutritious food for residents and ex-residents of their homeless shelter, Hosford House. This project will also provide health and diet sessions and cookery demonstrations to residents and ex-residents on how to plan and prepare healthy food on a low budget.  Information and advice sessions will be provided for local residents, senior citizens and users of their family and community programmes giving advice and support on how to prepare and cook healthy meals on a low income.

Many residents of the Mission are struggling to live on low incomes but still need to eat well and eat healthily.  Trying to meet these needs, the Mission has a café and Meal on Wheels service, serving good nutritious meals Monday to Friday within the local community.  The various projects of the mission make contact with several thousand people within the local community each week, many of whom are in need of support of various kinds, sometimes as basic as human contact.

East Belfast Mission is taking this service a stage further through the Demonstration Programme funding. It is committed to a community development approach and networks with a wide range of local community groups in order to better carry out its work for the people of Inner East Belfast. 

The aim is to provide healthy, nutritious food and health and diet information for the hostel’s homeless residents and ex-residents. The training for the hostel residents includes health and diet sessions on how to prepare and cook nutritious food on a low budget, which will add value to the life skills already taught during their time with the Mission.  These training sessions will also be provided to the local community, including families and older residents, who may use the café services. 

Benefiting from this training will be a number of community groups, including: 

• Local residents who already use the café
• Hosford House residents and ex-residents
• Families on low income budgets
• The wider community who may come onboard
• Objectives of the Project include:
• To provide an evening meal for 22 residents two evenings per week over the three-year period
• To deliver a programme of healthy eating to residents and ex-residents
• To provide information and advice sessions on healthy eating on a low budget to local residents
• To purchase extra kitchen equipment to provide training
• To raise awareness of the programme with promotional materials.

We hope those involved in the programme will learn how to cook and eat healthily at a low cost, and bring their new skills back to their homes and families. 

About the organisation

The East Belfast Mission’s Community Engagement work seeks to build bridges into the community by establishing relationships with community organisations and individuals who are vulnerable. and by development programmes and services for families.

Find out more about the funded community food initiatives

Food Focus Community Food Initiative (Cork) | Food for Life (Derry)  | Footprints Women’s Centre Building a Transition Community (Belfast) | KASI Community Garden (Killarney)  | Limerick Seed to Plate Project (Limerick)  | The Food Garden Project (Dundalk)