Food for Life
Location: Derry
The Bogside & Brandywell Health Forum (Healthy Living Centre) will develop, organise and deliver a range of healthy eating programmes including demonstration and practical cooking activities as well as education-based activities and information. It will bring together a range of community and statutory workers who are tasked with the improvement of health within the local community.
The Neighbourhood Renewal area of Triax in Derry city is the target area for this initiative. This ward is the most deprived ward in the Western Trust area and is ranked sixth most deprived ward area in Northern Ireland (NI). Income levels are among the worst within Derry City Council area, at gross household income of £8000/€9,200 per annum. 
The Bogside & Brandywell Health Forum (Healthy Living Centre), in partnership with a range of community & statutory groups, will develop, organise and deliver a range of healthy eating programmes including demonstration and practical cooking activities as well as education-based activities and information. The target audience will be children, teenagers, families & older people from the target Neighbourhood Renewal area of Triax in Derry city.
The aim of the initiative is to develop, organise and deliver a range of interlinked community food based programmes with the aim of reducing obesity in children and reducing the risk of nutrition-linked illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Obesity is a multifaceted problem and requires a holistic range of options to provide effective solutions for prevention and treatment. Anecdotal evidence from areas of the highest deprivation such as the Triax area strongly suggests that childhood and teenage obesity are becoming more and more obvious.
Objectives of the project include:
- To keep building on existing work and development of best practice
- To strengthen links with groups tasked with improving the health of the community within the target area
- To help reduce instances of obesity in children
- To help reduce nutrition-linked illnesses such as diabetes
- To deliver training programmes and advice on healthy eating throughout the community
About the partners
Bogside & Brandywell Health Forum is a community-led project tasked with bringing together many different groups and agencies in order to enhance the health and well being of the people in the Bogside & Brandywell community. The partners involved come from the local community sector, statutory health groups and General Practitioners:
- Bogside & Brandywell Health Forum (lead)
- Western Health Action Zone
- Youthfirst
- Gaelscoil Éadain Mhóir
The Health Forum co-ordinates a rolling programme of health promotion and development in various community venues throughout the Bogside & Brandywell community. It is able to target and recruit from the hard to reach members of the community. Over the past number of years the group has put health on the local agenda and is known throughout the community for its holistic approach to health. The Forum achieved Healthy Living Centre status from the Big Lottery Fund in 2001.
Find out more about the funded community food initiatives
East Belfast Healthy Eating Education Programme (Belfast) | Food Focus Community Food Initiative (Cork)| Footprints Women’s Centre Building a Transition Community (Belfast) | KASI Community Garden (Killarney) | Limerick Seed to Plate Project (Limerick) | The Food Garden Project (Dundalk)