A YEAR long project to get Bradfordians eating healthier has come to an end - and its findings could now shape future EU policies.

We Love Eating was an EU funded project involving seven cities across the continent, and Bradford was the only UK city involved.

Although findings from the seven cities are still being investigated, one of the partners behind the local project said evidence showed more people in the city were now aware of the benefits of healthy eating.

Laura Lamming, research fellow for Born in Bradford, said: “The pilot project has involved many different organisations and people across the district over the last year, and a lot of hard work.

"We have held a number of activities across the city and promoted the project at many different public engagement events. The response from local organisations has been really positive, facilitating lots of networking opportunities which we hope will lead into future partnerships.

"The public have also been really positive about the project and we’ve been thrilled to see people getting involved with project games and activities."

Other cities involved in the pilot programme were Banská Bystrica in Slovakia, Cluj-Napoca in Romania, Deventer in the Netherlands, Granollers in Spain, Pozna in Poland and Roncq in France.

The main groups targeted by We Love Eating were those most at risk by an unhealthy lifestyle - the elderly, pregnant women and children.

It was run by run by Born In Bradford and Shipley-based healthy living group HALE, as well as groups including Forster Community College and Jamie's Ministry of Food.

Among the messages of the campaign were to drink more water, exercise more and increase the number of colourful vegetables in diets.

Over the year the group has been spreading its message with events at the cities markets, events at City Park and other public places, as well as at visits to youth and elderly groups.

The final event of the 12-month project was held on Tuesday at Allerton Methodist Church, when children, pregnant women and elderly people were invited for an intergenerational healthy living session.

Children and their parents were paired up with an older person to prepare a healthy meal, and then took part in exercise classes.

Ms Lamming said: "Data was collected half way through the campaign across all seven European cities involved. This data suggests that the pilot project has started to have a positive impact on people’s awareness of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle.

"The final wave of data collection has just begun and we look forward to reporting the findings soon."

Now the pilot project has been completed, HALE Healthy Living Centre in Shipley will be the new point of contact for the We Love Eating project.