Green Capital / green capital
Green Capital: Kitchens on prescription
If you go to your doctor in Bristol in the future you may find as well as a prescription for pills, you could get a prescription for a new initiative for healthy eating.
Started at Wellspring Health Centre in Barton Hill, Kitchens on Prescription is a program which aims to teach cookery skills and healthy eating to people with health conditions.
“It’s a motivational healthy eating cookery course,” says manager Helen Cooke. “It allows any health care professional to refer any of their patients with a long term condition to this as a health care intervention.”
is needed now More than ever
First Kitchen on Prescription course at Greenway Health Centre
Thanks to Green Capital funding the course is now being rolled out across Bristol and the first course, piloted at the Greenway Health Centre, saw 13 people sign up with a wide range of different illnesses including chronic lung disease, cancer and heart disease.
“All of them said they know they should be eating better and that may be able to help their illness,” says Helen, “but they all said that they didn’t have enough information for them to make practical changes at home.”
With a Green Capital grant Kitchen on Prescription bought a pop-up kitchen which they can take across Bristol teaching practical ways people can cook their way to better health.
It’s not just about cooking though, the program also aims to break the cycle of an unhealthy lifestyle. Helen says they tackle this as part of the program: “We involve behavioural psychologists – we all know what to do to eat better, but it is another thing to put that into action.”
“It’s amazing how people don’t have the confidence to cook healthy,” says Helen. “We use very positive messages and the reasons for eating more vegetables and the impact on the body for doing that and the importance of reducing carbohydrates and why that’s important.
“It’s a lot of practical information, people learn how to cook and then we all sit down and eat together and that’s what people tell us they love – the social aspect of cooking together and eating together.”
Kitchens on Prescription will be holding a workshop on October 16 during Healthy City Week.
More information on Kitchens on Prescription.