26 September 2024. We say a big thank you to the National Lottery Community Fund for funding two more years of our Food with Friends project on food security and health education for marginalised communities in Portsmouth.
WBI will host our next hallmark event Food with Friends next week, thanks to a generous two-year funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, which supports projects and activities that help communities thrive.
Based around a meal gathering, WBI’s Food with Friends project invites migrants and other members of the Portsmouth community to share a meal together. The format is simple. We do a health presentation first where members can ask public health practitioners questions. Then, we all tuck into a warm and nutritious meal together.
Our first Food with Friends in December 2022 addressed dental hygiene at a time when it was near impossible to get a dental appointment. Since then, we have addressed topics as varied as mental health, maternity care, first aid, liver health, workplace health and safety, bone health, diabetes and other health topics.
[Photo: Learning about liver health with Dr Kate Glyn-Owen, University of Southampton, in August 2023.]
We also covered topics as difficult as cancer and menopause; and we were humbled each time by the honest reflections that participants shared with us.
Interesting facts you may like to know about Food with Friends:
- The idea came out of how much we like to host our team meetings over food. It is comforting. Nothing replaces the experience of breaking bread or sharing dal together and remembering childhood comforts!
- We brainstormed on the name for about a day, but once “Food with Friends” was thrown into the mix, that was really it. Perfect name – thanks to Anita David and Shipa Ahmed Khan.
- We are forever grateful to the Portsmouth City Council for supporting the very first run of Food with Friends with a £1,000 Community Inclusion Grant in 2022. We matched the funding from our social proceeds. Together, the amount covered four community meals over the four winter months of 2022-2023
Our first Food with Friends on this second round of funding from the National Lottery Community Fund will begin next week (you can read about our first lottery community grant here)! We will talk about breast cancer. See you then!
[Photo: Food prepared locally by women caterers to support their entrepreneurship.]
