Gather, Eat and Move! at our Community Lunch
WGN Members enjoyed the first in our series of six free ‘Gather, Eat and Move’ special Community Lunches on Tuesday 19 August.
The project is funded by Age Friendly Manchester and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group. They teamed up to offer funding for local community groups to help people aged 50+ to ‘Gather, Eat and Move’. To eat, chat and take part in exercise. They are funding projects like ours that deliver benefits on the following themes.
- Bringing people together in social spaces to share food or take part in food-based activities.
- Helping people connect, tackle loneliness and build lasting friendships.
- Supporting healthier ageing through better food and nutrition.
- Getting people moving – especially with strength and balance sessions.
- Helping people find support and local services that keep them well in their community.
From August through to November we’ll be promoting healthy eating, nutrition and hydration messages, and the benefits of taking part in physical activities. We’re serving up a series of healthy, free meals for our Members at Northenden Social Club, where we host our weekly Community Lunch.
- Colourful salad bars in August and September: with healthy recipes, information handouts and take-home fruit.
- Hearty, homemade soups, and wholesome, hot meals for October and November. There’ll be recipes and tips for economic, healthy cooking at home during the colder months. We’ll also provide information focused on improving balance and avoiding falls.
We’ll be joined by Manchester Local Care Organisation (MLCO) and other guests from the health and wellbeing sectors. They’ll support our Members with healthy ageing advice.
At our August ‘Gather, Eat and Move’ lunch we served nutritious proteins – roast chicken, tuna, and boiled eggs, along with a vitamin-boosting salad ‘bar’. Everyone went home with a goody-bag. It contained fruit, an easy-use ice cube tray (with fruity ice cubes and frozen yoghurt recipes), along with nutrition and hydration information.
Members also enjoyed taking part in a drumming workshop. It was called ‘Rhythms of Wellness: Drumming for Community Health in Greater Manchester’, funded by the National Lottery’s Community Fund.
