Throughout July Harvest Fine Foods have been busy creating Cooking at Home boxes for vulnerable families in their local area, supported by the amazing Charity City Catering Southampton that works tirelessly in the local area.
These boxes provide vital nutrition to low-income and vulnerable families who may otherwise struggle during the school holidays.
The boxes are matched to recipe cards created by City Catering and are also supported online which provides free and open access to anyone wanting to enjoy the specially created recipes.
All the recipes in the July boxes were low in energy, e.g. cous cous salad, in light of the rising cost of fuel, further impacting people’s abilities to access good food, and cooking from scratch.
Harvest Fine Foods were delighted to have been able to visit two of the schools whilst receiving their Cooking at Home boxes for the summer! 1,091 boxes were delivered and team harvest are extremely proud to be a part of this.
The wide-reaching impacts of food poverty should not be underestimated.
Food poverty is detrimental for children’s physical health and is associated with higher rates of obesity – a problem that has been worsening and is a cause for concern.
Additionally, food poverty can contribute to a negative impact on the home environment, with parents often skipping meals to protect children, and experiencing higher levels of stress which can have negative impacts on parents’ mental health and knock-on effects on parenting.
Food poverty also adversely affects children’s education, and is associated with poorer concentration at school, worse attendance and worse learning outcomes.
City Catering Southampton said: “The Cooking at Home project started in the first lockdown as a way to support families at that time, and has grown and developed since, thanks to successful grant funding and donations. We are really proud to have been able to continue to support so many families – often 900 at a time, working closely with 30+ schools. We are so grateful for the essential support of our partners, Harvest Fine Foods. It’s been a lot of hard work, from many people, and I’m delighted that this and the positive impact of it has been recognised by APSE and the APPG School Food network.”
Harvest Fine Foods’ Julie Widdall, Marketing Manager & Jessica Clasby-Monk, Charitable Impact Manager from City Catering Southampton met at Thornhill Primary and Kanes Hill Primary Schools. Their aim was to see the weeks of planning & preparation fall into place whilst Harvest drivers unloaded care boxes at the schools.
These boxes would then be collected by parents of children at the school. These boxes are an important way to improve accessible healthy food for all in the City of Southampton. It was great to see just how much these boxes help families and Harvest were extremely proud to be a part of it! Everyone involved managed to get everything done in the hottest days of the years too.
Sally Bradbeer, Home/School Liaison Officer, Thornhill Primary School, stated: “They are always well received by our families and the feedback we receive is always very positive. Most families enjoy the variety of ingredients and are always encouraged to look at the website and use the online recipe tutorials.”
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