A £530, troche 000 grant from the county council’s Healthy Together is being shared among successful bids by charities, groups and voluntary groups including a dozen groups in Gloucester and MP Richard Graham welcomes it so much he wants to join in.
“We do have real public health challenges in Gloucester – obesity and diabetes is one of them, there’s no point pretending otherwise – and it is good to see this support for grass roots initiatives to help improve our health. So I really welcome the dozen good projects funded in Gloucester, including at White City’s The Venture and Kingsholm’s Roots. Some of us – like me – are not great cooks and we don’t have to be. But we all like good cheap food and so I want to join one of these cooking healthy food on a budget sessions, if they’ll have me, and learn how to do it. Green Square – let me know when and where please.”
The MP added that there were spin off benefits for everyone, including better mental health, reducing loneliness and isolation and supporting carers: “we all eat too much rubbish and then we’re surprised we feel rubbish. Time to change both!”
Gloucester projects receiving Healthy Together funding include: The Friendship Café ‘Health for All’, Roots Coffee and Community ‘Learn to cook’, The Venture: White City ‘Be Healthy, Active, Fit and Happy’, Rooftop Housing ‘Be Strong, Live Long’, Community Roots CIC ‘The Fusion Project’, Gloucestershire Churches for Change ‘The Barton & Tredworth Link Project’, Community Family Care ‘Get Crafty’, Fair Shares Gloucester Project ‘Supporting Carers and Older People’, TIC+ (Teens in Crisis) ‘Workshops and Counselling Service’, Furniture Recycling Project ‘Men (and others) in Sheds’, Green Square Healthy Eating Project ‘Gloucester Healthy Eating on a Budget workshops’, Together in Matson ‘Engage to Change’, Gloucester Seventh Day Adventist Church ‘Healthy Lifestyle Skills’.