Health Roadshow Kick-Starts The New Year at Kidderminster food Store

Community retailer, The Midcounties Co-operative, has kick-started it’s ‘New Year, New Start, New You’ campaign by hosting the first of its Health Roadshows in Kidderminster.

The event which took place at the Franche Road food store was hosted by The Midcounties Membership Team and was the first of six roadshows touring the Society’s trading areas.

Over 100 members attended the event, learning about the importance of healthy living through recipe cards and booklets handed out by the Midcounties team.

Representatives from businesses across Kidderminster also attended the roadshow, including Chef IIja Harvey-Andrews from the Pudding Pie Cookery School and fitness instructors from the DW Fitness Club.

To demonstrate the campaign aims, IIja created delicious healthy recipes for customers to try out in-store and at home, while fitness instructors also handed out free gym passes and offered advice on staying fit and health in 2013.

Colleagues from the Midcounties Co-operative and Energy were also present, where Pharmacy Technicians advised customers on how to stop smoking and lose weight and Energy experts demonstrated how to perform energy health checks along with advice on suitable cough medicine and hayfever remedies.

Rachel Lockett, Membership Development Officer, said: “It was really encouraging to see so many customers and members taking part in this event. It’s the start of a new year and a time where people want to improve their health and fitness.

“The day was a great success and really emphasised the overall importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I would like to thank all our members and customers for getting involved.”

For more information on the Members Health Guide and Recipe Cards, please visit: http://www.midcounties.coop/Membership/Members-Health-Guide

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Midcounties Co-operative has been named ‘Co-operative of the Year 2012’, recognised for its excellence, innovation and ethics in business by Co-operatives UK.

It has headquarters in Warwickshire, with trading outlets in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Shropshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and the surrounding counties.

The Society’s trading groups are food retail, funeral, travel, coop pharmacy direct, childcare nurseries, employee benefits and energy. Midcounties is the largest independent co-operative society in the UK and has more than 470 branches and 245,000 active trading members. It is also in ‘The Sunday Times Best 25 Big Companies to Work For’ list for the second year running.

The Society's mission statement is 'To be a successful consumer co-operative working towards creating a better, fairer world, and to enhance the lives of our colleagues, members, customers, and the communities we serve'.

For more details call Rachael Jones or Louise Evans at Seal on 0121 616 5800

Visit www.midcounties.coop

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives, highlighting the contribution of co-operatives to socio-economic development, particularly their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration. The Year will highlight the strengths of the co-operative business model as an alternative means of doing business and furthering socio-economic development.