UK, 15 August 2022: VIVID Plus, the charitable arm of leading housing association VIVID, continues its partnership with Park Community School in Havant, to tackle health and wellbeing inequalities tied to food poverty in the Hampshire region. 

VIVID Plus's £20,000 donation will be utilised to further the work of the Park Community School’s pre-existing Munch Community Food Pantry which offers affordable and nutritional food to the wider region. The funding will be used to provide professionally led cooking classes for local families to help improve cooking skills and encourage healthy, low-cost eating.  

The partnership’s project, aptly titled ‘Grow It, Cook It, Eat It!’ initiative, places a chef in the school's kitchen for four months, teaching the community the best ways to use locally sourced ingredients from the community gardens.  

Derek Streek, Head of Communities, Standards & Partnerships of VIVID said, “Producing healthy, nourishing but low-cost meals can be a great source of concern with the increased cost of living so prevalent. This partnership with Park Community School seeks to address food inequality and health in the community head on, and feeds into VIVID Plus’s wider focus of ensuring safe, secure and productive communities around our homes. 

“As the community comes together to learn and share cooking skills, we hope to empower families and individuals in the local community to create low-cost healthy menus and use their kitchens with confidence and tackling the financial worry.”  

The partnership is another example of the school’s dedication to sustainable local social enterprise projects addressing food poverty and wider issues of inequality. In 2020, Park Community School led in piloting pantries in Hampshire on behalf of Hampshire County Council to provide the next step on from using Food Banks for communities.  

Christopher Anders, Headteacher of Park Community School said,  

“With the support of VIVID and continuing the work of the Munch Community Food Pantry we are hoping to help local families and inspire them to cook a whole range of meals, using lots of different ingredients from fresh vegetables to tins and packets that everyone has in the cupboard.”. 

As the charitable arm of the leading housing association and quality affordable home provider within Hampshire, VIVID Plus’s work aims to empower its customers to take control of their wellbeing by tackling community-led priorities through its unique partnerships.  

This most recent partnership with Park Community School arises from a mutual desire to create healthier environments and supporting the local community.