Community heroes awarded for amazing initiatives to support healthier eating among vulnerable groups

This year, the British Nutrition Foundation launched its new British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Community Award to recognise individuals working to support healthier eating among vulnerable groups in the community. The plan was to award one individual, however after receiving numerous impressive applications, the British Nutrition Foundation decided to award not one but two winners and two runners-up for its first year!

The two winners of the British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Community Award are Amanda Barbanel and Melissa Mogor.

Amanda Barbanel is a former primary teacher who co-founded the charity Give. Help. Share during lockdown 2021 with the aim of feeding vulnerable children nutritious food and food education workshops across Hertfordshire and North London, to support children in leading healthier lives. She has facilitated and coordinated the delivery of over 30,000 food parcels and over 200 food education workshops.

Melissa Mogor is a public health nutritionist working at the World Cancer Research Fund. She identified unmet nutritional needs among people living with cancer and conceived a cook-along programme which empowers people living with cancer with knowledge and skills, and also helps combat the isolation many feel. The classes she sensitively co-hosts aim to improve participants’ quality of life longer-term by helping them eat well again. They are hosted by a professional chef and supported by an oncology dietitian.

In addition, Lucy Antal and Hannah Style were recognised as the runners-up for the Community Award.

Lucy works for Feedback Global and started the Alchemic Kitchen project by using surplus fresh ingredients to make condiments. The project operates in an area of Merseyside with very low access to fresh food and enables people to access fresh food via a veg van, take cookery classes and obtain free slow cookers to help produce nourishing meals using low amounts of energy.

Hannah is a dietitian and founder of FEAST With Us (FEAST), a food aid charity providing community meals, made from surplus food, for people experiencing food poverty. FEAST provides a unique opportunity for people experiencing food poverty in four London boroughs to get education and skills to help them prepare healthy food and allows them to eat communally, aiming to prevent malnutrition through offering immediate relief and long-term solutions.

Commenting on the awards and the applications received, Sara Stanner, Science Director, British Nutrition Foundation said, “Going through the applications received, we were both in awe and humbled to see the work all our applicants have been undertaking to support healthier eating within community groups that are particularly vulnerable across the UK. As each applicant had an inspiring story to tell, deciding on one winner for the award was really challenging for the committee but it gives us immense pleasure to acknowledge the efforts of all our winners and would like to congratulate them on the impact they’ve undoubtedly created in the lives of the people they are able to support.”

The Award is made possible through British Nutrition Foundation’s management of the Drummond Memorial Fund, established in 1954 in memory of the work of Sir Jack Drummond, who made a significant contribution to developments in the application of nutrition science for public health benefit. 

For more information on the work undertaken by British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Community Award winners, please visit https://www.nutrition.org.uk/our-work/what-we-do/awards/community-award/

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The British Nutrition Foundation press office can be contacted for further information, interviews and images at pressoffice@nutrition.org.uk