WellFed Cornwall
A food and health creation network

WellFed Network
The WellFed network is a growing group that includes progressive clinicians, social prescribers, public health professionals, community and regenerative food growers and voluntary and community sector partners working to bring our health system and our food system together.
We want to see a shift away from the current sickness treatment model towards a health creation and sickness prevention approach. We’re trying to do this by connecting people with food that’s good for their health, good for planetary health (climate, soil and nature) and good for the community.
The network exists to promote shared learning and collaboration across primary and secondary care, Integrated Care Area (ICA) support services, third sector organisations, local / community food growers and others. It is open to all who support its aim of creating better human and planetary health through good food - healthy, nutritious food grown in ways that reduce carbon emissions, protect nature and build community, economic and food system resilience.
To join the network, please email ClaireJ@volunteercornwall.org.uk
WellFed programme
A series of test and learn pilots
The WellFed programme is a practical pilot and research programme partnering local sustainable food growers, community groups and enterprises with people at risk of or with early-stage type 2 diabetes, through their GP surgery or NHS healthcare service.
The aim is to test and evaluate the impacts of providing participants with a weekly (free) box of locally, agroecologically grown vegetables for 12 weeks. Support can include vegetable preparation / growing / cookery skills, as well as encouragement to participate in community food activities that can increase social and nature connection, physical activity levels and engagement with good food. Positive impacts could be on diabetes or diabetes risk but also on the wider health and wellbeing of participants, as well as on the local food system and climate / nature.
The WellFed programme has been based on an initial pilot partnership between Narrowcliff Surgery (Watergate Primary Care Network) and Newquay Community Orchard. This ran from 2023-24 and was funded by Cornwall Council Public Health and supported by the climate resilience team at Volunteer Cornwall. While participant numbers were small, results suggested a positive outcome for veg box recipients in terms of weight loss and a reduction in HbA1C (a diabetes marker), potentially reducing the future need for medication. There was also some evidence of greater engagement with, and personal agency around, good food.
Subsequent pilots in the Coastal Primary Care Network (PCN), in collaboration with Goonown Growers and Community Roots, showed similar promise.
From the second half of 2025, a new phase of WellFed pilots, funded by Cornwall Council Public Health and the NHS, is starting to be rolled out in new areas across Cornwall.
Based on the first trials, these pilots will offer more comprehensive support to participants to use the food they are prescribed and to engage with community growing sites / community food groups. It is hoped this will help them benefit from greater community connection and opportunities to raise physical activity levels.
The new programme of pilots is underpinned by a comprehensive data collection framework, designed and overseen by researchers from the Universities of Bath and Cardiff in conjunction with the WellFed team. Ethics approval and data sharing agreements will be in place at the start.
The monitoring and evaluation framework draws on expertise from food prescription programmes elsewhere in the UK. The aim is to not only to capture the impacts of the WellFed approach – and hopefully to make the case for commissioning social and food prescription for health creation - but also to learn more about the barriers, what works and how best to ensure the conditions for success.
The core conditions for WellFed
For anyone interested in participating in the WellFed programme, there are 5 key conditions that are needed to run a pilot at the current time. The WellFed team may be able to help with establishing one or more of these:
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Primary care participation. GPs, dieticians, health coaches, nurses or social prescribers refer participants and undertake clinical data collection.
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Availability of a community growing site to provide the veg box and host / support participants as appropriate. In some cases, this role could be split between a grower and another community food organisation working in collaboration. These organisations also collect some non-health data.
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Skills uplift – e.g. support with cooking / food preparation skills. Our first trials identified this as a key need. In trials to date, this has happened on community growing sites, but it could take place in community kitchens / other locations.
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Opportunity for enhanced activity. This could take a number of forms but might typically entail getting involved in community growing and learning practical skills along the way. Some of the wider co-benefits of WellFed can come from connection with others in the community and being physically active and in nature.
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Data collection, monitoring and evaluation. At this stage, WellFed is a small-scale research trial and pilot. We have a limited ‘pot’ of funding to evaluate the potential benefits of the approach and to make the case for commissioning it as a service to be available to all those who could benefit. Therefore, it’s important that participants (and referring clinicians / supporting growers) are prepared to participate in the research.
WellFed programme steering group
feedback
Goonown
"Hi, I'm the bloke who made a flippant response when you asked how often I ate vegetables. I said every four weeks. I took home the box of veg you kindly gave me and reflected on it over the afternoon and decided I needed to change my attitude to healthy eating. I prepared a salad meal for my wife and myself. On Saturday I stocked up with a variety of vegetables and will be eating more healthily in the future, all thanks to you."
Video
resources to share:
recipe cards
These recipe cards are Word documents or Powerpoint slides you can download, use,edit and change as you wish if you would like to use them in your initiatives. We'll develop and gather more that would be useful for veggie box and bag schemes. Feel free to remove some unnecessary or unlikely-to-have ingredients, or change the wording, or images, to suit the needs of the people who may use them - be creative!
some of the photos from the welcome day at
Goonown Growers near St Agnes
for the first group of participants!
The day involved cooking lessons, weeding activities, chat, laughter, lunch - and going home with a veggie box!
Some of the fabulous talks from our Health and Climate Skills Lab this year looking at ... the F Word!
Narrowcliff's Pilot Veggie Box on Prescription
Dr Kath Brown, Narrowcliff: Plants not Pills
Caroline Court, Cornwall Council Public Health: Food!
Imagine If:
A Day in the Life of a GP, 2030
resources to share:
exemplar projects
We're collecting examples of emerging initiatives, and other fabulous projects - if you come across one that you think should be here, let us know!
Active project
Alexandra Rose Charity, London
Liskeard and Looe and N&E ICA
And if you want to join our informal network,
just email Manda here. )
Sustain have released a report and webinar that explore how good food creates good health ...
Report reveals power of fruit and veg on prescription
The first UK trial of GPs prescribing fruit and vegetables has shown promising results, leading to the charity behind the project to call for nationwide programmes to boost health and reduce food poverty.
Sustain Member Alexandra Rose Charity, which is currently running fruit and veg on prescriptions pilots in two London Boroughs, has released findings on the profound impact the project has had on the lives of people on low incomes, living with long-term health conditions linked to poor diet.
After just 8 months of receiving vouchers for fruit and veg, the programme has found:
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80% of participants are eating five portions of fruit and veg each day, compared to just 28% at the start of the programme.
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9 in 10 participants have seen their physical health improve, including healthy weight loss, higher energy levels and better digestion.
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7 in 10 people with high blood pressure saw an improvement as recorded by doctors and nurses.
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Over half of participants shared that their mental health has also improved as they worry less about money for food.
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The support provided has resulted in a 40% reduction in GP visits.
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£222,000 has been invested in the local economy since the project began.
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Read the full Alexandra Rose Charity Report: Exploring the power of Fruit & Veg on Prescription
As a result, Alexandra Rose Charity, which is also a partner in our shared Bridging the Gap programme, is calling for wider replication and a scale up of the approach across the UK. This suggestion was also a key recommendation of the independent National Food Strategy led by Henry Dimbleby as part of the Community Eatwell initiative.
Jonathan Pauling, Chief Executive of Alexandra Rose Charity, says:
“Food isn’t getting cheaper, healthy food least of all. Our mission is to make it easier for everyone to access fresh fruit and veg in their communities. This is a simple intervention that works. It is now time for the government to act on the evidence and progress to a national roll out of trials of Fruit & Veg and Veg on Prescription as a part of their already stated commitment to the ‘Community Eatwell’ programme. This should form part of wider measures to boost health, address food poverty and reshape our food systems for the health of those most in need.”
Only 1 in 4 adults eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Consequently, in 2019, diets low in fruit and vegetables accounted for 16,000 premature deaths in the UK. With healthy food more than twice as expensive per calorie than less healthy food, affordability is a huge barrier for people on the lowest incomes to get enough fruit and vegetables into their diet.
Henry Dimbleby, author of the National Food Strategy says:
“Food related ill health costs the UK £98 Billion per year in costs to the health service and to the economy. Behind those bald numbers, lies untold misery to the sufferers and their family and carers. All of this is inflicted disproportionately on those living in poverty. By taking this one simple action – providing fruit and veg on prescription the government could do so much to assuage that. And now Alexandra Rose Charity has provided the hard evidence, there is no excuse for delay. Their Fruit & Veg on Prescription Project improves not only the diet and health of people but also the health of the local food economy. I urge government to take a look at the impressive results from these pilots and explore how these can be replicated and scaled as part of a ‘Community Eatwell’ approach to tackling food-related ill health in the UK, as recommended in the 2021 National Food Strategy."
Run in partnership with the Bromley by Bow Centre in Tower Hamlets and community health practitioners at the AT Beacon Project in Lambeth, almost 200 individuals took part in the project, receiving up to £8 in Rose Vouchers every week, which were spent on the fruit and veg of their choice at local markets and food co-ops.
Dr Chi Chi Ekhator, GP Lead, AT Beacon Project says:
“We all know that the food we eat plays a vital role in our health, but sadly we are seeing more and more people struggling with food poverty and food-related ill health. At the Beacon Project we understand the importance of building trust in our community in innovative ways to support those who have fallen through the cracks of healthcare systems as a result of inequalities in accessing health and wellbeing support. We know that change is possible, and we see the Fruit & Veg on Prescription project making a significant difference to the health of people in our community.”
With Rose Vouchers covering most or all of their fruit and veg costs, the project also significantly reduces food insecurity, with many people sharing they now worry less about money for food. One participant receiving Rose Vouchers for fruit and veg shared: “Before the Rose Vouchers I didn’t even eat fruit because it takes so much out of my money… but now I don’t have to spend my cash and I can try different fruit and vegetables.”
You can see the webinar featuring Sustain, Bridging the Gap, Alexandra Rose Charity and Dr Ekhator here: