Case study:
Abbeycroft Outdoors
HOW YOU CAN HELP
OUR PARTNERS
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Abbeycroft, together with partners, has delivered a staggering 58,500 meals since July 2020 through 3 different programmes:-
- Family Park Cooking
- Adventure Days
- Reducing Isolation with Food.
Each of the programmes are designed to support families and individuals in financial hardship, as well as tackle food poverty, isolation and inactivity.
Family Park Cooking
Funded from the government’s Holiday Activity Fund via West Suffolk Council and Babergh District Council – sessions are delivered every school holiday across 8 locations with FREE spaces for families in financial hardship.
Families spend a day together in an outdoor location, doing fun, physical activity as well as cooking by a campfire. However, what makes this
project unique, compared to many other holiday food projects is that each family is also provided with a food meal box for a week, plus recipes and videos to encourage them to cook, simple, affordable and nutritious meals together at home.
Over the Christmas holidays the programme has also delivered Christmas lunch and Boxing Day ingredient boxes and an activity pack to
families across the region.
Family Park Cooking days have inspired us to spend more time outdoors as a family
We’ve seen our children’s confidence improve since coming to these sessions.
My confidence, as an adult, has improved since I’ve been coming to Family Park Cooking with my kids.
We’ve started cooking together at home now and everyone wants to get involved which is great.
Activity days
Our outdoor adventure days for children aged 8-13 are delivered by The Abbeycroft Outdoor team and include a whole day of fun, structured, safe activities with our forest leaders. Places are completely free of charge to families in financial difficulty, or for children that have been negatively affected by bereavement, social isolation, reduced mental health, anxiety etc.
These sessions run across West Suffolk Council and Babergh District Council’s catchment during each school holiday.
Reducing Isolation with Food (RIF)
Bury St Edmunds Festive Food project and RIF has delivered 11,500 meals since 2020.
Funded by Bury St Edmunds Town Council and supported by Tesco, West Suffolk College and Bury St Edmunds Rickshaw – these two projects deliver heat-at-home meals throughout the year and at Christmas
(including hampers) to isolated adults spending Christmas day alone.
Food is prepared by students at West Suffolk College and delivered by the Bury St Edmunds Rickshaw team as well as local Councillors and volunteers and the entire initiative is coordinated by Abbeycroft’s
Outdoor team.
58,500 meals is 58,500 plates of happiness delivered to people living in hardship.
Food binds us together and as a society, reaching out, combatting loneliness and helping those whose lives
just aren’t as they want them to be, is what these projects are all about.
Objectives
Tackle food poverty
Increase physical activity
SOCIAL CONNECTION
the numbers
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approx people
sessions delivered
In the news
58,500 MEALS PROVIDED TO HELP TACKLE INEQUALITIES
Festive Food, Reducing Isolation with Food (RIF) and Family Park Cooking
INITIATIVE TO HELP REDUCE ISOLATION IN BURY ST EDMUNDS EXPANDS
The ‘Together During Lockdown’ programme includes a mix of gentle, physical activity sessions such as chair-based exercise and strength and balance,
20,000 meals provided to help tackle inequalities
Projects to tackle food poverty, isolation and inactivity have been coordinated during the last year by Suffolk’s largest independent health and lifestyle provider, Abbeycroft.
NEEDS MET
Our Abbeycroft Outdoors partners
HOW YOU CAN HELP
To continue with this much-needed programme, we need additional funding, to be able to offer more meals and more opportunities to be active, feel connected and healthier.
The programme has already achieved positive outcomes, in terms of the client’s mental and physical wellbeing, however, we can do more.
Please get in touch if you think you can help – or share this page with someone who may be able to.
Thank You.