Healthy Future for Local Food Sector – Leitrim, Cavan, Longford and Roscommon

/in /by

60% of Irish adults are obese or overweight and this worrying figure will set the scene for a major food innovation conference this week in Drumshanbo which Momentum in delighted to be a part of. The networking and showcase event on October 14th in Lough Allen Hotel, Drumshanbo will look at tackling creative ways to produce, market and distribute healthy food, while meeting like-minded entrepreneurs and buyers, and of course, sampling some of the innovative and healthy foods on offer in the region.

The overall aim of the healthy food initiative is to secure business and tourism opportunities for the future economy of the area, while supporting local enterprise diversity and innovation.   Food producers attending are interested in innovating healthier food ranges by either modifying their existing ranges or developing new products.  Companies attending range from  from Aurivo’s Connacht Gold Low Fat Butter and For Goodness Shakes range to Lakeland Dairy who supply all of the UK milk for schools programme with a low sugar milk drink to smaller artisan producers. We look forward to meeting with lots of our curennt and past food clients many of whom are already excelling in the area of product innovation and health and wellness trend including Jinny’s Bakery,The Cheese Hub,  and recent Blas na HEireann winners Chef Sham Sauces, Roll it Pastryand Waldron Meats

Supported our Eu funded Erasmus+ Nourish EU project, which stimulates the development of healthy and innovative food regions, the Upper Erne Shannon Erne Future Economies, the Local Enterprise Offices of the region and Aurivo, the leading food co-operative embarking on innovative healthy food initiatives, the conference is free to attendee for food producers and buyers and  includes a Spotlight on Distribution, Learning from Others, and focus on Financing Innovation. The end of programme reception sees the launch of Nourish EU’s ‘Irish Healthy Food Partnership Toolkit’, an Erasmus + initiative by the Chief Executive of Leitrim County Council, Frank Curran.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Nourish EU, Local Enterprise Office and Aurivo Ireland, there’s no fee payable to attend the event – just book online at www.nourisheu.com/booking to secure your place and start growing profits from healthy food!

nourish eu Project Launch

/in , /by

nourish eu is an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership that will develop educational tools to assist the stimulation of Healthy & Creative Food Regions. The biggest challenges facing the EU food sector are obesity and food poverty but these are also commercial opportunities to develop healthy and affordable foods. nourish eu is an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership that will develop educational tools to assist the stimulation of Healthy & Creative Food Regions in UK/Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ireland.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The Food Hub  are joined in this project by Momentum, who are based in Leitrim Village. The project will work closely with the key players in food policy and food production to develop new approaches to ‘healthy, affordable and sustainable food” accessible to all.

Joining forces with organisations in UK, Bulgarian and Hungary, The Food Hub, Drumshanbo and local training and development specialists, Momentum will develop a toolkit to assist and train regional stakeholders to create a Healthy Food Regional Partnership. This toolkit will comprise a programme of learning actions and guidance on how to create a healthy food region.

LEGOCIE (LEt’s GO Cooking In Europe!)

/in /by

LEGOCIE (LEt’s GO Cooking In Europe!) is a Grundtvig Partnership project which will encourage and facilitate adults to share knowledge and good practice about the ways that cooking skills and healthy eating are encouraged and supported in a number of European countries.

In the first year of the project, for each country involved, partners:

  • Investigated the cooking skills and eating habits in their country;
  • Looked at the impact that cooking skills can have on healthy eating and the fight against obesity;
  • Investigated the strategies that are in place at local and national level to promote and support improved cooking skills and a healthy diet.

In the second year of the project, we focused on developing cooking skills in each participating country.
On the basis of what we found in the first year, each partner:

  • Devised an event to promote and encourage cooking skills and healthy eating with community groups, volunteers, parents or elders in their local area or region. The success of this will be evaluated by each individual partner, and the learning will be shared with the other partners at the final project meeting.
  • Developed some resources to promote and support cooking healthy food so that the work of the project group can be disseminated locally, regionally and nationally. This will include the collation of healthy recipes and cooking skills information from each of the partner countries.

You can find out more about this project here – www.legocie.eu