Chomp's winter newsletter
Happy new year!
We’re in deep winter and just over the cusp of New Year. Many of us use this time to reflect on the year just passed and think about what the year ahead may hold. We want to share with you the support that we were able to offer our families over the Christmas period and introduce you to some of our initiatives for going forward into 2023.
Christmas Hampers
Our 2022 Xmas hampers were packed and sent to 100 families in December. They included fruit and veg from Florence Road Market customers, presents donated and wrapped by local business ‘A Room in The Garden’, and other crafty and tasty treats.
“Thank you so so much for our beautiful Christmas hamper. The gifts are wonderful, I’m so heart warmed by such generosity. Thank you so much to all you fabulous Chomp team!”
Christmas Lunch Club
We ran 7 lunch clubs across the city and served circa 400 meals across those sessions. We made sure that our families had a hearty Christmas lunch and plenty of fun. Our craft whiz Sophia led inventive craft sessions, using recycled materials to make snow globes, decorations and winter scenes. Visiting our sessions was Julia Mckelvey from Puppet Delight and Sam from One Church who brought a silent disco along. The children LOVED this and many of them wore the headphones throughout the whole session!
Our volunteers were the stars that topped our tree, coming along to help in any way they could with joyful spirits. As you can see in the photo above, we even had our own mummy elf at our Benfield club.
So all in all, a wonderful time was had by all, communities came together and families felt held at these challenging times.
Trying new things
We can all find it difficult to try new things in life, especially when we feel safe in our chosen limits. However, trying something new can expand our life experience and is a brilliant way of helping ourselves to build our resilience. We have created stickers especially for when someone tries something new during a chomp session as we feel this is something to be celebrated.
As part of our Christmas meal we served a new dish that many of our families tried and loved so we have celebrated this by sharing the recipe on our social media accounts. It was roasted squash with a miso marinade, topped with parsley and redcurrants. Follow our Instagram link at the bottom of the page to find the recipe.
Looking ahead into this new year….
This year we will continue to run our fabulous lunch clubs during the school holidays but we are also looking to include some extra activities that are great for boosting self esteem.
We are planning cooking and movement sessions for children, and we will also be continuing our wellbeing days for parents. These can include treatments, cooking, nature days or ‘running’ groups. Nourishment comes in many forms, such as skill building, time to self, time in nature, moving our bodies, meeting people and learning. When we feel nourished we are more open to life and the opportunities that it holds.
