Healthy Food Made Easy

Two students in the MSc. Human Nutrition & Dietetic course partnered with the Athlone Family Resource Centre (AFRC) for their 8-week community led placement and delivered two community-based programmes, supported by Marie Byrne, Community Food and Nutrition Worker, Athlone FRC. 

• a 4 week nutrition programme - designed to increase awareness of healthy eating guidelines and to promote long-term healthier food choices - to the Brothers of Charity and to two DEIS national schools in Athlone (St Mary’s and St Peter’s) based on initial needs analysis and featuring weekly interactive sessions.   
• A 6 week Healthy Food Made Easy programme to early school leavers in St Anthony’s and after school pupils at the Gateway Youth Project, designed to improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards healthy eating and cooking, featuring interactive Kahoot quizzes and co-design with pupils learning while preparing, cooking, and enjoying the meals as a group.  

Nutrition programmes increase awareness of healthy eating guidelines and promote long-term healthier food choices. The Healthy Food Made Easy programme promotes confidence in preparing balanced meals on a budget with the bonus of ensuring that pupils receive a hot meal, supporting food provision and nutrition quality.

Marie Byrne, Athlone Family Resource Centre, Brothers of Charity, St Mary's National School, St Peter's National School, St Anthony's early school leavers, Afterschool pupils at the Gateway Youth Project in Athlone.

A brief nutrition knowledge questionnaire pre and post the healthy food made easy programme was used to assess the programme, with feedback from participating organisations. 

• St. Peter's Afterschool Club Supervisor: 'Thanks so much, the students really enjoyed the programme this year, I think they were more engaged than previous years because of the activities you both did each week'.  
• Brother's of Charity Carer: 'Thanks so much for doing this programme with us, we learned so much. All the information was very relevant and important for the service users to know'