The Slow Cooker for Heart and Soul Course

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Niloufer Ebrahim, a GP in Farnham, a group of health professionals and community partners, created a Farnham Health Inequalities Group. Their goal was simple, to better understand and support the health and wellbeing of people living on the Sandy Hill housing estate, and parts of North Farnham.

A questionnaire was created to give an insight into the wider determinants of health in this area and extract specific data relating to the residents of Sandy Hill. There were nearly 2000 responses.

One of the questions in the questionnaire was about diet. The data that was provided gave the group what they needed to target delivery of services in this area. The key takeaways from residents were:

• improve their diet
• reduce ready meal consumption
• eat the recommended 5-a-day

Armed with this new population health insight, Dr Niloufer Ebrahim made a successful funding bid to Surrey’s Better Care Fund and teamed up with Hale Community Centre in Farnham to work with the team and launch The Slow Cooking for Heart and Soul Course.

This friendly, hands-on course supports residents to learn about the benefits of cooking in a slow cooker, how to make the most out of seasonal produce, cooking healthy and affordable meals and the benefits of social interaction and connecting with others.

Want to see how the course is making a difference? Hear from the team and the local community in this short video.