Project providing residents with fruit and veg

The Fresh Street Community project has been giving locals vouchers for fruit and vegetables

A project to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables has been hailed as a success by the team leading it.

The Fresh Street Community project, consisting of food researchers made up of University of Plymouth academics and students, aimed to give residents of the Whitleigh area of the city better access to seasonal fruit and veg.

The project saw local residents given vouchers to pick up produce supplied by Tamar Fresh fortnightly.

Project leader Dr Clare Pettinger said the scheme has proved to be "really, really popular", had got people eating more fruit and veg and also sharing recipe ideas.

Dr Pettinger said people who had taken part in the project had valued the "social connection" it had provided for them.

"That's one of the biggest impacts we've seen is that people have come out of their houses to come and pick up their fruit and veg and they've chatted to each other and learnt tips from each other on how to cook," she added.

'Snowball effect'

Community chef Matt Corner said the project had tried to inspire people to cook and talk about recipe ideas.

"It's something we've always done, it's something that's inherent to human nature," Mr Corner said.

"Once you get people cooking and once you get them tasting different ingredients, even if they don't like them at first, then it kind of becomes a snowball effect."