We are delighted to share the tremendous success of our December 2024 Food With Friends event in collaboration with Home-Start Portsmouth focusing on children’s well being.
Denise Brown, Family Hub Champion from Home-Start delivered a brilliant session. She shared valuable information about the effects of early years support for both parents and children. This is an important topic for all families and especially important for newly arrived families in the Portsmouth area who may not know of local resources to help improve child wellbeing.
There was an interactive discussion about how difficult it can be for parents, especially postpartum mothers, who can feel socially isolated from friends and family outside of their new role as a caregiver. This discussion is especially important for the migrant community, considering that vulnerable migrant women are at an increased risk of developing postnatal depression when compared with women in the general population, according to a 2018 study published in the British Journal of Midwifery.
Our attendees had a great opportunity to learn about the well-being support available to tackle isolation and how we can give our children the best start in life. We also heard about new initiatives to give guidance to expecting parents and support in coping with behavioural issues.
Parents had the opportunity to chat about their concerns in a safe space and the children in the room were treated to fun, games and a bit of football – plus a surprise Christmas present from the Home-Start team! Thank you so much Home-Start!
We had delicious Turkish food prepared by Tugba Bektaş.
Food with Frienda is a project supported by the National Lottery Community Fund to drive how businesses can contribute to reducing health inequalities in our local communities. Every month, WBI organises a hot meal for migrant and other families in Portsmouth while we learn about important health topics.
WBI are grateful to all who volunteer at Home-Start who help support all the young families in our community. We thank Denise Brown for making our last event 2024 such a special one for the families we support.
WBI’s Food With Friends project has impacted so many lives through our front-line community work since it began in 2022. It’s been an amazing year of hard work and effort from our entire team and community members to deliver this project and we’ve learned so much along the way.
We looking forward to supporting more communities and working towards helping connect more people in 2025. In the meantime, happy new year everyone!
