Good Food Flintshire

Since the summer of 2018, we have been busy tackling food poverty and insecurities in Flintshire. The food poverty strategy has been adopted by the PSB and Flintshire are the regional lead and chair of North Wales Food Poverty Alliance. 2020 raised some significant challenges and here is the work we have done to combat those challenges so far…….

Christmas Track & Trace Support - 2020

Agencies such as The Food Banks were closed over the Christmas period, this highlighted a risk as the Test, Track and Protect team had nowhere to refer residents to if they required food support. 

Well-Fed addressed this issue by creating healthy dried food boxes that included fresh cheese, eggs and milk. A recipe card was provided to show the resident how to cook the meal. The boxes were stored in the Ewloe hub and accommodation support officers were available to carry out the door step delivery 24/7 while ‘on-call’ during the Christmas week. 

This provided Well-Fed with assurance that any Flintshire resident who required support with food if instructed to self-isolate over the Christmas period, were able to be supported them a dried food box until they were able to get a supermarket delivery slot or pre order a Well-Fed at Home food delivery. The dried food boxes were also available over the Christmas period to any residents who were shielding.

Christmas Food Boxes - 2020

Well-Fed worked with councillors again this year to ask them to nominate a family or individuals who requires a Christmas dinner in a box. We also worked in collaboration with children’s social services and Theatr Clwyd’s shoes box donation campaign where over 150 gifts and 120 shoe boxes were donated. 

The Christmas dinner boxes containing soup, Christmas dinner, pudding, cakes and selection boxes were delivered as well as the gifts for the children to 126 Flintshire households on Christmas Eve. We received a donation of over 500 selection boxes. As well as providing Christmas dinner boxes to families/individuals, we also provided 96 Meals as well as gifts to 32 care leavers in Flintshire. All meals and boxes were delivered by volunteers on Christmas Eve. 

Well-Fed Food Box Marketing Campaign - September 2020

After the shielding programme came to an end on 16th August we called all residents to ask them for their feedback on the meals Well-Fed had provided and whether they now had a plan in place for them to be able to purchase food? From this we identified 105 residents who still required our support.

To ensure the residents continued to eat well, from feedback provided Well-Fed created their own free food boxes containing a 5 day fresh meal provision. The box included;

• A choice of individual nutritious meals
• slow cooker bags
• recipe cards with ingredients to give families the opportunity to cook a meal themselves and eat well together
• fresh provisions such as milk, bread, eggs, cheese and dried produce, cereal, crisps, biscuits, tinned soup etc.

The free Well-Fed food box meant residents knew they were able to rely on the food box being delivered weekly direct to their door. We also trialed a new packaging style to make the boxes completely recyclable. 

Over the 6 weeks marketing campaign, the food team called each resident weekly to check they were enjoying the food box and what there thoughts were so any necessary changes could be made ahead of launching the food box at a reduced cost with effect from 23rd September 2020.

Subsidised Well-Fed Food Box

We identified 30 residents were eager to continue to receive the Well-Fed food box and purchase it paying only 30% of the cost for another 6 week period while we continued with our market research. The addition of fresh fruit was added to the box from feedback provided in the marketing campaign. The food team ran a weekly phone ordering service and volunteers continued to support us with the picking, packing and delivering. 

Shielding Programme - April - August 2020

Due to the current pandemic, a number of our residents were initially advised by the Welsh Government to follow shielding advice, this meant they were unable to leave their home to purchase food etc. 

Well-Fed’s response was to provide emergency food support to those that are shielded by enhancing the parcel provided by the Welsh Government with fresh meals and provisions such as eggs, cheese, ham and butter as well as supporting our vulnerable resident who are in need of a helping hand with food during this time.

Over the 18 weeks shielding period the small team of staff and volunteers supported over 500 residents per week, providing over 46,000 meals. 27 volunteers from the Housing and Revenue department as well as Clwydalyn, Mountain Rescue and local volunteers delivered the food parcels direct to the residents homes on a weekly basis.

Packed Lunch Doorstep Delivery - Spring 2020

As schools across Flintshire closed 23rd March 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we worked together with Newydd Catering to be able to deliver over 136,000 packed lunches over a 7 week period to the doorsteps of all pupils in receipt of free school meals. 

Taxi drivers who would usually drive the children to school, carried out the daily deliveries. The children liked to look out for the delivery driver from their windows each day and enjoyed their packed lunch when it arrived. 

Slow Cooker Programme - March 2020

In March Well-Fed gained funding to launch a four week slow cooker pilot across two sites, Hub, Mold and Queensferry Primary school. 

The aim of the slow cooker pilot was to be able to meet and work with the families to understand their relationship with food. Each participant was provided with a slow cooker and 2 slow cooker bags, complete with instructions on how to prepare and cook them. All participants were able to keep the slow cooker they received to encourage them to continue to cook fresh recipes for themselves and their families.

Each participant was also given a voucher, to be spent on our fresh, nutritious meals. They were able to choose from our range of fresh products inclusive of individual meals or slow cooker bags.  This allows us to promote the menu from our Good Food Hub and be the first service that allows choice within a food poverty resource. 

Due to Covid-19 the slow cooker pilots are now on hold for the time being.

Kicks for Kids, Holway Holywell - February 2020

We provided 180 hot meals to children and their families attending the Kicks for Kids playscheme that ran for three days over the half-term break. Both the children and the families in the area enjoyed attending the playscheme and having their lunch together.

We have been working closely with the residents on the regeneration of the Holway, understanding what it is they would like and how we are able to provide them with the relevant food support and access to fresh affordable food for all.