FOLLOWING popular demand a grub club which helps families put food on the table is now running on a permanent basis.
Munch, a Winchester based health eating café, launched a grub club at Unit 12 in Winnall in the summer of 2021 offering families six week blocks twice a year.
Now, the Grub Club has announced that it will be available every Thursday from 3.45pm to 5.30pm in studio two of the community centre, subject to funding. The change follows popular demand from club users.
The community interest company focuses on areas of depravation like Winnall, Stanmore and Highcliffe to help lower income families. The Grub Club at Unit 12 supports parents to prepare and cook healthy meals with their children and take home new recipes.
Munch coordinator Mary Needham said: “A lot of the families in Winnall might be suffering with food poverty, fuel poverty so that’s why we do the grub club there at Unit 12. The families love coming and have built up quite the community.
“It’s primarily about healthy eating but it’s also about community and social inclusion and helping people cook well on a budget. All of our recipes are cooked from scratch so we try to focus on batch cooking and cooking things that can be frozen.
“The families that come to us always have a cost-of-living crisis so it’s not really a new thing for them to try and make ends meet. Obviously, it’s worst at the moment so getting a hot meal, once a week is really helpful for them and then having the recipes to take home is also really helpful for them to have those meal plans that can stretch.
“Anybody that has children will understand that it is quite hard to get the kids to eat healthily sometimes. At the Grub Club there is a lot less pressure and children are with their peers so are more likely to get involved and try new foods. Following the club, the outcome has been that the kids want to try more food and want to cook the recipes again at home.”
The not-for-profit organisation manages corporate events and catering and charity events with all proceeds going towards Munch’s social side including the community café and cooking workshops like grub club.
As well as being self-funded the community interest company receives financial support from local councils and authorities.
Winchester City Councillor and volunteer director at Unit 12, John Tippett-Cooper, said: “Munch’s Grub Club will help so many hard-working families at a time when there is so much pressure on household budgets.
"Everything and everyone at Unit 12 is focused on supporting the community as the cost of living crisis hits this Winter. As well as the work of our great partners like Munch, we’ll be delivering our key projects including the Community Food Pantry and Community Clothes Pantry who are working harder than ever to make sure people have support with food and clothing.”
In addition to the Grub Club at Unit 12, Munch operates the community café at Unit 12, a lunch club in Stanmore for isolated adults, works with Winchester GoLD and provides food and cooking workshops throughout the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme at the Carroll Centre and Unit 12 to provide school children with one hot meal a day during the holidays.
For more go to munchcic.co.uk/.
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