Five people with pre-diabetes and diabetes have been getting weekly veg boxes on prescription from Goonown Growers CIC, an organic market garden in St Agnes on the Cornwall north coast, writes Kathy Ellwand.
Goonown is working in partnership with St Agnes Surgery, part of the Coastal Primary Care Network (PCN). It invited the participants to join its weekly volunteer days, and ran workshops to build skills and confidence in cooking with seasonal food funded by Cornwall Community Foundation.
Funding for the veg box prescription programme came from the WellFed initiative led by Volunteer Cornwall‘s climate and resilience team. A total of nine new WellFed pilot programmes are being rolled out in communities across Cornwall.
“The participants engaged so well with the food, the volunteering and general community of the site. They’ve become a lovely part of our Friday family, it feels like it’s been a great thing for them, and we really value having them here with us.”
Rob Alderson, organic veg grower at Goonown Growers CIC
Goonown Growers is a community supported agriculture farm in St Agnes. Its mission is to: “Grow great food in a way that supports the health of our community and planet, and create a space for people to belong, learn and grow well together.”
The WellFed programme started in June, when the five participants went to the farm for a welcome day with local chef Andi Richardson of The Mindful Menu in St Agnes, Kathy Ellwand, volunteer coordinator at Goonown Growers, and Tarna Morrison, dietician at St Agnes Surgery / Coastal PCN.
Right from the start, they wanted participants to have the opportunity to get to know the farm where their veg was grown, and find out how to get involved. They were able to meet other people who are managing similar health issues, receiving a veg box on prescription and also hoping to make changes to their lifestyle and diet.
They learned to cook some simple recipes from the veg they would find in their boxes, and everyone left feeling more confident about using these vegetables. Highlights were eating together round the fire, foraging in the hedgerow, and getting stuck in with a bit of gardening to remove some enormous perennial weeds.
“I’m cooking from scratch and eating more healthily. It’s made me love my food even more. Some of the veg I’ve never seen before and had to Google!
“It’s been great being part of a team and has really improved my mental health. I just feel I fit. It’s made me look at the environment and what I’m eating. I always leave feeling positive!”
WellFed participant and volunteer at Goonown Growers
Providing opportunities for people in the community to improve their mental and physical health is at the heart of Goonown Growers’ mission. Often, the price of sustainable, local organic produce is a barrier to people accessing good food. The Goonown team love that this programme helps get its produce free of charge to local people who could really benefit from it.
Goonown Growers run an inclusive volunteer day every Friday, when volunteers of all ages and abilities come to help out, be together in nature, and cook and eat a delicious lunch together made from our veg. We wanted our WellFed participants to be able to access volunteering with us as a key part of this programme.
Volunteering at a local growing project offers many benefits for mental and physical health: time in nature, connecting to land through the seasons, being part of a friendly, inclusive team, getting active through gardening, and learning from each other.
“Great to be outside helping in the fresh air and felt I was doing my bit to help. It was lovely to socialise with all the other lovely people and have lunch together.
“Having the fabulous veg box was great, having all that good nutritious food to eat on a weekly basis giving everyone all their vital vitamins and minerals etc was wonderful.”
WellFed participant and volunteer at Goonown Growers
“It’s been amazing to get to know the people on the WellFed programme. They have become part of life on the farm. Two of the participants are carrying on volunteering with us after the box on prescription ended, which is wonderful. We will be running another group later this year and we can’t wait to meet our new group!
“Working with Tarna from Coastal PCN has helped us reach local people who can really benefit from getting involved with the farm, and also helped build relationships with other social prescribers at St Agnes Surgery to refer their patients onto our upcoming Nature & Health courses funded by Cornwall Community Foundation.
“The collaboration between NHS health professionals and local community food growers feels very exciting and a simple, achievable, scalable, step forward for climate and people health.”
Kathy Ellwand, volunteer coordinator, Goonown Growers
About Goonown Growers CIC
We are an organic market garden based in the heart of St Agnes village. Our mission is to grow great food in a way that supports the health of our community and planet, and create a space for people to belong, learn and grow well together. We are a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group, so we are powered by volunteers who help out with growing the veg. People in the local community subscribe to veg boxes or ‘shares’.
Volunteering at Goonown Growers is on Fridays 11am-4pm (winter 10am-3pm). Feel free to pop in on a Friday to have a look around or contact Kathy Ellwand for more information and to discuss any support needs you might have: [email protected]
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/goonowngrowers/
Order a veg box https://goonowngrowers.ooooby.org/
About WellFed Cornwall
WellFed Cornwall is a network of food growers, community food groups, health professionals, voluntary community and social enterprise partners, and others. We’re working together to create better human and planetary health through good food and food-related community activities.
Through the programme, nine new pilots are are being rolled out in communities across Cornwall, building on the original Newquay Orchard / Watergate Primary Care Network’s ‘veg on prescription’ trial. Data from these pilots will be used to help make the case for a ‘channel shift’ – aiming for some of the huge (and growing) NHS spend on treating preventable disease to be shifted upstream, to create good health and wellbeing, and help prevent people getting sick in the first place.
The WellFed pilots are led and supported by Volunteer Cornwall’s climate resilience team, funded by Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board. The WellFed programme is supported by a steering group of NHS, Cornwall Council Public Health, Volunteer Cornwall, Cornwall Voluntary Sector Forum, and Sustainable Food Cornwall partners.