We’re delighted that the founder of Nourished Routes Helen Mullins, daughter of one of our residents, will now be starting after-school clubs at our estate Factory Quarter in West London.
Helen, a mother of two and trained chef, had the idea to start Nourished Routes after she realised advice and guidance on nutrition, exercise and mental wellbeing for children was largely missing in mainstream education or through the channels available to many parents and families.
When she came across the community hub at Factory Quarter she thought it would be the perfect place to bring her vision to life. After speaking with our estate management team, she was given free access to the hub to run an initial series of workshops.
In the first six weeks from its launch in November 2023, 119 children and 76 families took part in her workshops giving people the knowledge of how to eat well, exercise, and look after their minds from a young age.
For Helen, having the space to deliver this programme in a central location that is on the cusp of multiple London boroughs has been critical to the success of Nourished Routes.
She said “Without NHG and the community hub at Factory Quarter, we would not have been able to support this many children and families in this amount of time.”
Nourished Routes began as a self-funded initiative, but in February 2024, with the workshops growing in popularity, NHG provided grant funding for Helen to enable her to develop the social enterprise further and employ two permanent members of staff.
Now Helen is launching a paid after-school club in the community hub with reduced fees for low-income families.
She also has a contract lined up to provide before and after-school care at a local primary school, which will kick off from September 2025.
Helen is now looking to widen her offering with sessions for secondary school children and mother and baby workshops, as well as curating a long-term programme of regular weekly, monthly and annual sessions, and activities and clubs during school holidays.
Helen says the greatest achievement of Nourished Routes is seeing the impact of the workshops on the children first hand.
“We’ve already helped so many children and families to build lifelong skills and habits that are invaluable in supporting healthy bodies and minds.”
