Project to positively influence eating habits
A €1.5 million community food project has been launched with three Cork organisations set to receive some of the funding.
Safefood’s Community Food Initiatives Programme 2025-28 aims to positively influence the eating habits of people in low-income communities throughout the island of Ireland, fostering lasting change and strengthening community resilience around healthier eating.
The Cork-based organisations receiving funding are:
Ballyhoura Development CLG: Serving communities in North East Cork (and East Limerick), this project will deliver family cooking programmes using the Healthy Food Made Easy scheme. It will also integrate with a food mapping project, involving the community in mapping their own food environment to understand what makes it easy or hard to find healthy choices.
IRD Duhallow CLG: Serving communities in Northwest and Mid Cork (as well as East Kerry), this project will deliver seasonal food workshops, cooking workshops for children, livestream sessions, and healthy recipes via social media. The project will specifically work with vulnerable and socially excluded individuals in the local community, including those affected by rural isolation, immigration, economic hardship, and inadequate infrastructure.
The Glen Resource and Sports Centre: Serving communities in the northside of Cork city, this project will improve the availability of household staples such as fruit, vegetables, and bread through mobile units and community food markets. Working with local families, the project will encourage intergenerational skills transfer through community cooking sessions and community meals.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD said: “Unhealthy food choices are increasingly becoming the norm, impacting the health of our population. I am encouraged by the focus of Safefood’s Community Food Initiatives, which are more than just a source of learning about food; they build practical skills and knowledge at the grassroots level. I welcome that these local projects foster connections within communities, aiming to create a future where healthy eating is realistic, achievable, and accessible to all.”
The Safefood initiative will support each group to establish, manage, and sustain a local food initiative that promotes lasting behaviour change and strengthens community resilience around healthier eating.
Dr Gary A. Kearney, Chief Executive, Safefood continued: “We’re excited to launch our latest round of Safefood Community Food Initiatives. They have a proven track record of effectiveness and success, and we want to extend their impact by doubling the scale and increasing the scope of our work to include not only good nutritional and healthy eating help but also including ‘tips and tricks’ around food safety for members of the public. We will also be funding 25 additional one-off community projects each year under the scheme.”
He added: “This year marks 15 years since we first started working among communities and more than 65,000 people have taken part since then. By supporting people in low-income communities, these projects have the potential to create long-lasting changes in how people shop, plan and cook food. Ultimately, this work is about improving the access to, and availability of, healthy and safe food in our communities.”