Edition 2 - March 2022

 
 

My 'Why'

By Shola Oladipo, Food for Purpose CEO 

Welcome to March - and yes Spring is in the air! I do love the longer days, warmer weather, longer walks and the lovely aroma of Spring! 

Some days I do ask myself "why in the world did I leave my job to start a CIC?" I sound like I am complaining, but I really am not - I promise!

I am grateful but brutally honest about the effort, time, steep learning and energy it takes to run a business! By God's grace our team and business is great, and growing at an exciting rate.

Recent happenings have made me consider and recount my why or reason for doing what I do. My why is central to all I do as CEO, I remind myself, when I wonder or even wander. I remind myself when enjoying the highs of winning and the lows of waning.

And yes, I am filled by the conviction I received to branch out and grow a team with whom we can make a difference to the health of generations by raising awareness of cultural relevance, faith and health. 

My why has helped me recently when my precious younger brother suddenly passed on. I felt my whole life had caved in, heart-wrenching pain and disillusionment set in.  My why, reminded me of the deep desire and calling to serve others, whilst going through, and make a difference to the lives of those at the brunt of health inequalities.

So this month, I am refocusing, refreshing my direction and approach with my why at the core all actions.

So, what's your why? Why are you doing what you are doing? Whom will it benefit? 

Have a great month - don't just live - have a reason...have a why.

 
 
 
 

Featured this month

  • CEO says - My 'Why'

  • News

  • Student Dietitian at FFP

  • Recipe of the Month

  • Being Active as a Family

  • Managing Carbohydrate Portions with Diabetes

  • Special Guest Contributor - Oyinlola Bukky Akande, President of Unique Women ~ Unique Women / Healthy Lifestyle

  • Miss Tea's Blog

 
 
 
 

HCI in North Bedfordshire
We are soon to be working with Black Majority Churches in North Bedfordshire. We will be running the Healthy Church Initiative in 3 churches between March – June 2022. Drop us a line if you are interested.

  • Salt Awareness week 2022
    Salt Awareness Week 2022 will take place 14 - 20 March, and will shine a spotlight on a simple yet effective approach that we can all take to improve our health – by shaking the salt habit! We have known for some time now that too much salt can harm our health, leading to unnecessary deaths from heart attacks and strokes. Don’t forget to follow us on our socials, and watch out for our salt awareness posts! 

  • New staff member at FFP
    We are delighted to welcome a new staff member to our health care professional team. Gabrielle Julal is a Specialist Nutritionist who will support the HCI programme roll out in Bedfordshire and London.

  • Healthy Living Black adults in Lewisham
    Up!Up! is here! It is a newly co-created pilot programme about healthy living for Black adults in Lewisham. It is specifically created for people from Black African and Black Caribbean descent. FFP is part of the Up!Up! development team and we will be delivering cooking classes as part of this 12 week course. If you live in Lewisham and want to improve your health, ask you GP about being referred or complete a self-referral form.

Student Dietitian Placement 

Feedback from Katy Skillen

 
 

Caribbean Sweet potato & Tofu curry

This tasty vegetarian curry with classic Caribbean flavours is a hit if you want a meat free day, or perhaps you follow a vegetarian diet. It is quick and easy and full of flavour. Go on meat eaters – give it a go, you will be surprised how much you don’t miss the meat!

 

Ingredients:

300g extra firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves garlic crushed and minced

½ tsp turmeric

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp Jamaican curry powder

1/2 scotch bonnet pepper, deseeded & chopped (optional)

½ tsp dry thyme

1 seasoning cube (5g)

1 bay leaf

125g sweet potatoes, peeled & chopped into chunks

3 spring onions, chopped

100g baby corn, sliced 

2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped to garnish

 

Method:

  1. Heat half the oil in a large non-stick pan or wok - fry the tofu on each side until golden.

  2. Remove the tofu cubes and place in a plate lined with a paper towel to drain any oil.

  3. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan or wok. Add the onions, garlic salt and pepper, and sauté on medium heat for 2 minutes.

  4. Add the turmeric, paprika, curry powder, scotch bonnet pepper, thyme, crushed seasoning cube and bay leaf. Stir on low to medium heat to combine all ingredients.

  5. Add about 500ml of water to the wok / pan. Add the sweet potato. Bring to boil on medium heat. Then cover, lower heat and cook for about 10-12 minutes, until potatoes are soft and the curry thickens. Add salt to taste (go easy).

  6. Add the spring onion, baby corn and tofu cubes to the curry. Bring to boil and cook for 5 minutes.

  7. Garnish with fresh coriander

Serve with boiled rice / boiled green banana or even rice and peas.

 

Serves: 4 adult portions

Preparation time: 20 minutes 

Cooking time: 1 hour 

 
 
 
 

Being Active as a Family

By Precious Oladipo, FFP Director & Fitness Lead

Physical activity is great for our bodies, and gives us an endless number of benefits, but slotting it into our busy daily lives serves to be quite a pain sometimes, doesn’t it?  Adding children to the mix might make it almost impossible for some, but being active doesn’t always mean dragging the family to the gym - there are other ways in which you can stay active with your family and kill two birds with one stone. 

Current guidelines state that children should aim for 60 minutes of physical activity a day and for adults, its 150 minutes per week. Being active with your children will help to achieve your fitness goals and also builds a special bond as a family. Instilling these behaviours whilst they are young, will encourage them to adopt these habits as they grow older. 

Take a walk as a family and maybe play a game of ‘I Spy’ too. Play a team sport or some of your favourite childhood games - release your inner child every now and then!  Find out what your children like to do or get them to pick a monthly activity that you can all do together. If they are a lot older, make it competitive!  Set up a step challenge and have a prize for the winner (a small incentive goes a long way). 

If you’re feeling extremely competitive, challenge a friend’s family too.

Improved communication and teamwork skills, as well as building more opportunities to engage with your children, are just some of the benefits that come with being active as a family.  

It might not happen overnight but gradually building this in as a family routine, even if it’s just 10 minutes, is a great place to start.

 
 

Managing Carbohydrate Portions with Diabetes

By Modupe Peters - FFP Director and Diabetes Specialist Dietitian

People with type 2 diabetes can still enjoy a variety of carbohydrate foods such as sweet potato, rice, yam, dasheen, dumpling, bread, pasta, cornmeal, kenkey, ugali, pounded yam, plantain as part of a healthy balanced diet. The type and amount of carbohydrate consumed has a direct effect on overall blood glucose control.


Glycaemic Index
All carbohydrates get broken down into glucose (sugar) which is a source of energy in our body hence raising blood glucose level. The greater the amount of carbohydrates eaten, the higher the rise in blood glucose level. Some carbohydrates are broken down slower in the body (low glycaemic index- low GI) hence better for blood glucose control examples include wholewheat pasta/spaghetti, basmati rice/brown or wild rice (ofada rice), multigrain or seeded bread, sweet potato, rolled or jumbo oats. However, some are broken down much faster (high glycaemic index) examples include: fruit juices, sugary drinks such as ordinary type cola drinks or similar variety, sweets.


Managing carbohydrate portions and keeping to low GI options as much as possible can go a long way in helping diabetes control

So, what is a portion?

Here is a guide for healthy portion sizes (cooked serving guide unless stated otherwise) of some common carbohydrates in our diets:

  • 2 slices wholegrain/granary/seeded bread

  • 4-5 tablespoons or 1 and half serving spoon rice ideally brown or basmati or wild rice

  • Small to medium fist size pounded yam (fufu), kenkey, ugali

  • 1 small plantain (whole) or half large plantain (boiled)

  • 6 slices lightly fried plantain

  • 2 small round yam slices

  • 3 tablespoons porridge (dry)

  • 1 portion fruit (80g)

  • 2 dumpling – ideally boiled

  • 1 medium sweet potato (160g)

  • 150g spaghetti or pasta

All the best with managing diabetes – remember you are in control!

Share your experiences with us - we would love to know how you are getting on

 
 

Unique Women Healthy Lifestyle

By Special Guest Contributor - Oyinlola Bukky Akande, President of Unique Women

The Healthy Church Initiative (HCI) has played a major part in our growth as a team. We adopted the system and ran with it back in June 2020, and I would like to share some of our journey.

We engaged in weekly motivational clips and sessions on being consistent, dedicated, persistent and disciplined.  We shared meal ideas and videos of our daily physical activity (e.g., our daily step count).  With the help of our in-house coach, we were able to encourage the ladies to be committed and accountable.  

Different posts were sent on the platforms to challenge and encourage daily engagement. Some of the key messages revolved around changing our mindset, never giving up, and putting in a small effort still goes a long way.  We celebrated our achievements together and had testimonies in the following areas:

  • Improved sleep

  • Less stress

  • Improved sexual health

  • Better mood

  • Stronger immune system

  • Improved cholesterol readings

  • A healthier heart

  • Weight loss

Unique Women will forever be grateful for the Healthy Church Initiative. We had the opportunity to try it out and we found it effective and productive.

Oyinlola Bukky Akande is President of 'Unique Women'

If you wish to reach her to discuss this topic further – please email info@uniquewomen.org

 
 

Miss Tea's Blog

Waste not, want not

Food waste is something that I passionately detest. I have an A4 sheet of paper on the fridge door with everything inside listed in Use By date order. That was my husband's idea and it works amazingly well. I'm no longer chucking a load of food in the bin every week, because not only do I know exactly what's in there - it also gets used up in date order.

We are not angels!

Some nights we really don't fancy whatever was next up and decide that we'd rather have a cheeky take away - or something we just bought because we were craving it...that is absolutely fine!  We haven't achieved perfection, that was never the goal. And we still might generate a bit of waste now and then but it's not every week and it's nowhere near the scale of what was being wasted previously. Another thing I do is to write dates on the tops of all the cans with a black marker pen. Drives me nuts that they make the dates so small and put them in obscure places at times.

There's no more of that 'what are we going to have for dinner tonight' thing either. Whatever's next in date order is what we're having. The fact that the decision is predetermined simplifies mealtimes. What do you do to reduce or avoid food waste? Please share your tips with us - we'd love to hear them.

It's also worth remembering that it's not just the food that's being wasted - you've also wasted whatever hard-earned money you spent on it. It's kind of like taking your cash and throwing it in the dustbin, when you think about it.

By making the dates more 'in your face' you'll be more likely to eat the contents before the Use By date and avoid throwing them in the bin. I threw a load away recently and vowed 'never again!'

When you consider how many of our brothers and sisters went hungry today....that's pretty unforgivable.

 

Let's keep in touch

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admin@foodforpurpose.org 

 

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sandra.thomas@foodforpurpose.org