Healthy food group boost

The National Lottery Community Fund has awarded You Can Cook £86,520 to run a 3-year project to deliver a programme of cookery workshops addressing health and nutrition issues in the region.

The project will combat loneliness and social isolation, as well as supporting people to eat well on a budget.

As more and more Borderers are turning to food banks to put food on the table, SBHA is joining forces with You Can Cook to organise ‘Socialise while cooking on a budget’ workshops throughout the Borders. The first sessions will be starting in Peebles in November and is aimed at SBHA tenants.

The format for each workshop will include You Can Cook’s executive director Bosco Santimano and his team cooking two budget recipes, tasting, advice, conversation and awareness of how supermarkets encourage us to buy what we don’t need and advise us on the changes we can make to enable us to be more savvy with our food shopping.

Bosco said: “Having a healthy diet is the key and first step to leading a successful life. As an organisation with healthy living at our core, our ethos is to motivate communities and individuals to enhance their health and well-being through food. These activities will also be open to the wider community in some areas as part of our goal to tackle isolation and loneliness. Covid-19 has exacerbated the problems in this area as many residents found it very hard due to the restrictions imposed during lockdown and the social distancing rules that meant they could not meet up for a pint or cuppa in their local pub or café.”

“All our workshops encourage learning through active participation which allows everyone involved to interact and learn from each other.

For further information about this project and other valuable resources to help you make informed decisions about your food and health; click here.