Food co-op provides healthy living choice over the Christmas period (From The Northern Echo)

Food co-op provides healthy living choice over the Christmas period

2:49pm Wednesday 30th December 2009 in NHS Darlington and County Durham

Healthworks in Easington is offering a Christmas themed market stall to allow users to the centre to access fresh fruit and vegetables at a reasonable cost.

The stall will be at Healthworks in Paradise Lane, Easington Colliery on Monday 21 December 2009 between 10 am and 12 noon.

Over the past four months, Healthworks have been offering monthly market stall themed food co-op events to raise public awareness of the service and, at the same time, deliver the message of how important it is to eat five fruit and vegetables a day. All users of the service will receive a FREE recyclable bag.

Due to the huge success of these events, Healthworks will now be offering this as a weekly service from January 2010.

Alyson Johnston from Easington who works as a volunteer at Healthworks, said: “The food co-op service is brilliant value, excellent produce which is exceptionally fresh and locally sourced.

“I approached Healthworks a few months ago with the idea of having the market stall themed service as this would give people the opportunity to choose what they wanted and the quantity they required. “The monthly market stall was introduced in August 2009 and as a committed volunteer of Healthworks, I agreed to manage the running of the market stall, this included weighing produce and taking payment.

“I am extremely thrilled at the success of the market stall and pleased that Healthworks can now offer this as a weekly service. “The food co-op service has been great in helping me maintain a healthy diet and has allowed me to have a variety of fruit and vegetables. It also provides a great opportunity to catch up with friends and have a drink at the Juiceworks smoothie bar.”

The Food Chain Company North East provides the produce and delivers directly to the food co-op. This allows local people in the Easington area to purchase bags of fruit, vegetables and salad which will be much cheaper than local supermarkets. The contents of the bags will vary depending upon what produce is in season. NHS County Durham and Darlington Community Health Services is supporting the Food Chain Company North East as part of their initiative to make County Durham a healthier place. The co-op will provide the produce and deliver directly to Healthworks.

ENDS