5-a-Day Local Community Initiatives

This two year initiative funded by The Big Lottery Fund, aimed to raise awareness of the health benefits of eating 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. The health messages and information reinforced and complemented the messages given by other existing initiatives in the city.
 
The Portsmouth initiative took two routes. The first was a programme of cookery workshops -" Kids Cookery "- for primary and junior school age children and their families in three of the more socio - economically deprived wards in the city. The workshops aimed to increase the acceptability of fruit and vegetables through handling, preparation and cooking. Games and quizzes were also used to promote the message.
 
The second part of the initiative was to establish a system whereby communities or organisations were able to submit bids for small amounts of money to fund community projects that support the 5-a -Day message. Projects, which received financial support included:

• 5-a-Day Workplace challenge
• Fruit and vegetable tasting at schools sportsdays
• Arts project producing recipe leaflet from Kids Cookery Club
• Young Carers fruit and vegetable farm visit
• "Cooking Around the World"
• Stir Fryday "Win a Wok" competition
• Health Visitors Weaning Pack

Although the funding for the initiative ceased at the end of March 2006, the core promotion work continues and toolkits are being developed for anyone wanting to run similar activities.