Opportunity for residents to promote healthy living.
Birmingham’s Health for Life in the Community programme recently celebrated the opening of its first ‘green gym’ with the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Cllr Mike Leddy and employee volunteers from Mondelēz International and programme partners, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV).
Funded by the Mondelēz International Foundation and delivered by TCV the ‘green gym’ allotment, located at Green Meadow Road, Weoley Castle, will be used by the local community to grow fruit and vegetables, and encourage people to get outdoors and partake in physical activity.
Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Cllr Mike Leddy, said: “Health for Life is a fantastic initiative which aims to promote healthy living in a variety of different ways. The community programme’s unique ‘green gyms’ will provide residents who may not have outdoor space the chance to get involved in growing their own food in a dedicated community environment and I’m in complete support of everything the programme aims to acheive.”
The ‘green gym’, which was transported piece by piece from a display garden created by TCV for Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC, is the first for the £3.1 million five year programme which aims to encourage residents of South Birmingham to engage in growing food, healthy eating and cookery and physical activity.
Sonia Chhatwal, Community Affairs Manager at Mondelēz International said: “We’re now in the second year of our five year programme, with Health for Life in primary schools and Health for Life in secondary schools launched in 2012. We hope to see many more children and adults across South Birmingham becoming involved in the project over the next four years.
“Mondelēz International is dedicated to giving back to the people living in the areas surrounding our sites, so we’re pleased to be able to support a programme which makes a sustained difference to the lifestyles of so many people in South Birmingham.”
An additional nine teams of staff have volunteered in order to prepare the Weoley Castle site this October as part of Mondelēz International’s Global Service Month.
Employees play a vital role in their communities all year long, and this month of service simply carries on a rich tradition of volunteerism from the organisation.
To find out more about the Health for Life in the Community programme, contact Debra Nixon on 0121 771 4339 or d.nixon@tcv.org.uk.