Free healthy lifestyle sessions for Ipswich residents launched by Groundwork East and Emmaus Suffolk

Courses for Families

This course will teach parents and carers how to grow, shop for, and cook nutritious food on a budget, helping them to make healthy choices for their families that are easy and affordable. The programme is designed for parents/carers to attend with their early years (ages 0-5) children. Families will learn side by side, growing their skills and confidence together throughout the course. The sessions are also a great way for children to learn about nutrition and growing food from an early age as well as an opportunity to develop key communication skills as they grow and cook with their parents/carers.

Emmaus Suffolk’s Royal Oak Hub is already an important resource for many families in the area, offering social events and food support. In fact, this summer the organisation is offering free meals for under 15s every Wednesday from 3-5pm. Their partnership with Groundwork East’s allows the organisation to add experience in horticulture and nutrition to their established offering of family activities.

The sessions combine physical activity with practical, outdoor tasks in green spaces and will revolve around renovating and refurbishing the existing community garden area at Emmaus Suffolk Hub ‘The Dales.’ The sessions will include installing new structures (such as raised beds, composting facilities, trellis and seating areas) and minor horticultural tasks. This supported work will allow participants to gain confidence and skills in gardening and landscaping.

Through the sessions, attendees can also make positive improvements to their own mental and physical health. Exercise is good for our bodies, but also for our minds. It can lead to better sleep, lower anxiety, and even improved confidence.

The session will teach participants how to grow vegetables and leafy crops and then show them how these can be used to make healthy, delicious foods on a budget. Participants will gain practical growing and cooking skills, helping them to develop their confidence in these tasks.

The sessions will also teach learners the importance of healthy nutritious food and physical activity for promoting good mental health. Being in green spaces and working with our hands can help to relieve stress, improve our sense of wellbeing, and has even been linked to increased life expectancy.

These sessions are free to attend and teach participants how to cook delicious meals on a budget. They will focus on providing cost-saving advice to attendees including ideas for bulk cooking and purchasing, slow-cooking as well as ways of reducing food waste. The sessions will last 2.5 hours and will finish with a shared meal of food created together in the session.

At Groundwork, we believe that growing food and sharing in the creation of nutritious meals together is the perfect way to connect with others and create a healthy community. This project will help inspire individuals to explore how to grow and cook nutritious food with their families and community in ways that won’t cost the Earth whilst breathing new life into two community garden spaces

Ashley Lydbrook, Groundwork East