‘Your body is a sports car’

Bearnie DeMonick has been helping empower the community of Barton Hill to take charge of their own health and wellbeing, one non-organic chicken at a time.

Bearnie DeMonick is a food and health development worker at Wellspring Healthy Living Centre, a charity organisation set up by and for the people of Barton Hill. Their mission is to empower the community to improve their physical and mental health, and overall sense of wellbeing.

“I love an occasion,” says Bearnie. “And for me, cooking is an occasion. Whether you’re cooking for other people or yourself, it’s an occasion. And you do it because you are valued.

“You put the energy and love and care into it because you are a valuable commodity. So, you’re a sports car. Your body is an amazing sports car and we’re going to put the best fuel we can in you.”

A typical day for Bearnie could be anything from running the centre’s programmes on site, to working with children in schools, or making pizzas in the specially-built cob oven at Barton Hill’s Walled Garden, using fresh ingredients grown in the garden.

Bernie also heads up a programme called Kitchen on Prescription, which works with young adults in the community based on GP referrals. This could be mean anything from teaching first-time parents about weaning, to changing perceptions about what is good value for money.

“In terms of the impact for an area like this, it’s looking at their budget. What have they got? What are they working with?” Bearnie says.

“Often people are working with really small budgets and they have the supermarkets creating these ready-made foods, which are assumed to be cheaper than cooking from scratch, but it’s about changing those perceptions.

“If you buy a whole chicken that might cost you a fiver, okay it may not be organic at this point, but that’s okay. It’s helping them understand that actually it doesn’t matter just now – you’re doing what you can with what you’ve got.

“It’s not trying to push them too far, that’s not helpful. It’s looking at where they shop, how close it is to them? Can they get to it? Is it feasible?

“And if they can manage to do some of these little things, it will affect their health in a really positive way, and their mind in a really positive way.”

Bearnie recalls a particular case where she worked with a single dad, who was living with his parents and struggling with ideas of what to cook for his two-year-old, as well as his own weight issues and health complications.

“His dad always cooked for him, and he thought ‘I’ll eat what I’m given.’ He came to the session and was really inspired at how simple it was to create these meals for his little one and himself and feel really good about it, because he was doing the best that he could.

“Since then, he’s been volunteering at Span – the single parents’ network in Easton – and grows his own vegetables and herbs. He’s lost some weight and he’s doing really well.”

Image: Wellspring Healthy Living Centre

Bearnie is also running a Prescription on Kitchen programme with NHS England, which looks at specific communities around diabetes. People living in economically deprived areas are at higher risk of diabetes, as well as South Asian and Somali communities.

“It’s to do with a combination of things, including financial implications, access to healthy food, and knowledge and skills. Some of it may also be inherited.

“So it’s looking at feeding your body well so we can stave off those things. And if you’re inherently going to get it, it’s about how you manage it so that it doesn’t go so far that you have to be on insulin all the time.”

“Working with people gives me a real buzz. And seeing how folk can come into a group the first time with sometimes very little confidence and very little ‘I-can-do-this’.

“Often it’s just about making people feel that they can do it and allowing them the space and the environment to actually try it.

“When I see them go away more confident – it’s that that makes me want to continue to do it.”

Bernie will be running a free workshop as part of Bristol Food Connections festival. ‘Challenging social isolation with collective cookery solutions’ takes place on Wednesday, May 6 between 10am and 3pm at the Wellspring Healthy Living Centre, Beam Street, Barton Hill. For more information, visit www.bristolfoodconnections.com