Local charity Project Food has moved into new premises at Axminster Hospital.

Formerly known as Health and Local Food for Families or HALFF, the Axminster-based Project Food provides food education to local people.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the charity has been providing a crucial free meal delivery services to more than 40 families and individuals struggling to obtain healthy meals.

More than 50 children on Free School Meals benefited from Project Food's delivery services whilst schools were closed, with the charity not just delivering in Axminster, but to all the surrounding villages as well as Bridport, Chard, Seaton, and Honiton.

Project Food has also supported about 100 households with deliveries of nutritious ready meals and vegetable boxes, mostly to elderly people living alone who have been shielding or self-isolating.

In addition to food delivery services, Project Food has been reaching local people with online cooking sessions, aimed at bringing them together and demonstrating how they can cook and eat a healthier diet, even if they are unable to get out.

When lockdown restrictions are eased, the charity intends to run community cooking courses at its new site at Axminster Hospital to teach vulnerable local people to prepare nutritious food in their own homes.

The move to the comes after recent reconfiguration works undertaken at the hospital by the landlord, NHS Property Services (NHSPS) and the Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust, highlighted disused space in a kitchen area in the main building.

NHSPS has invested in the work to create a modern and fit-for-purpose space for Project Food's use. This investment comes as part of NHSPS' social prescribing programme, which has seen the organisation develop its estate to provide space for community and wellbeing programmes.

The new kitchen will enable Project Food to expand its important meal delivery operations in a COVID-safe and socially distanced manner, with increased floor space.

The improved facilities will also allow them to take larger groups for the cookery classes that they run for local people to promote nutritional awareness.

James Page, Regional Partnership Director at NHS Property Services, said: "We are delighted to be able to provide space for Project Food to deliver their important services locally.

"We are committed to utilising our estate to promote community wellbeing through our social prescribing programme, and hope that our partnership with this charity will be of real benefit to vulnerable people in the Axminster area."

Tiggy Parry, director at Project Food, commented: "We are absolutely delighted with the kitchen space in Axminster Hospital and are very grateful to NHS Property Services and the RD&E for giving Project Food the opportunity to use this space for the benefit of the local community. 

"It will help us to help many more people to have better physical and mental health through a healthier diet."