For immediate release: Tuesday 13th January 2026
Honeybunch Community CIC celebrates after receiving £20K of National Lottery funding to host events and workshops for local mums and babies
Local community group Honeybunch Community CIC (The Honeybunch Community) is celebrating after being awarded almost £20,000 in National Lottery funding to support its work with mums and babies across Greater Manchester.
The funding will enable The Honeybunch Community to launch Mum’s Connected, a weekly, in-person mum and baby social and educational meet-up delivered across four Greater Manchester locations. It will also support the development of the group’s Virtual Village—an online peer-support space—and fund a free, family-friendly open day, giving local mums the opportunity to meet, connect, and experience what The Honeybunch Community has to offer.
Founded in June 2025, Honeybunch Community CIC is a volunteer-led organisation currently supported by three active volunteers, with six more in training. The organisation was founded by Denita Wallace after recognising how many mums experience isolation and pressure caused by financial, emotional, and mental strain during the postnatal period. Her aim was to create a safe, welcoming space where mums could meet others, share experiences, learn new skills, and build supportive local connections.
Honeybunch Community currently runs an online mum chat, serving over 80 local mums, offering peer support and discussion around topics such as self-care, physical and mental wellbeing, breastfeeding, weaning, sleep, and day-to-day check-ins. With the new funding, this will transition into a fully moderated Virtual Village, supported by trained volunteers with safeguarding and mental health first aid training, who will provide moderation, guidance, and signposting to specialist services when needed.
The funding from The National Lottery Community Fund—which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK—will also support:
- The launch of Mum’s Connected in February 2026, delivered weekly across Stretford, Moss Side, Salford and Collyhurst, removing financial and travel barriers for mums
- Online workshops focusing on self-care, parenting, and perinatal mental health
- A free community open day, on Saturday 17th January 11am-3pm at Saint Matthew’s Community Hall in Stretford, giving families a chance to connect, learn about upcoming activities, and take part in taster sessions
At the same time,The Honeybunch Community will move forward with plans to launch Move, Flow & Bond in February. The programme will be led by voluntary director Leeah, a mum of one with several years’ experience as a personal trainer and yoga instructor, and will focus on postnatal fitness, gentle movement, stretching, and baby bonding. Later in the year, the organisation also plans to introduce Mum’s Kitchen, a volunteer-led cooking programme celebrating diverse cuisines and practical life skills.
Denita Wallace, Founder of Honeybunch Community CIC, said:
“We’re absolutely delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Thanks to National Lottery players, we can now expand our plans and offer more accessible, inclusive social and educational opportunities for mums and babies. This support is vital, as the postnatal period can be one of the most vulnerable times in a mother’s life. We want mums to know they are not alone, that they have a ‘village’, and that there is a safe place they can turn to for support, connection, and guidance.”
A Virtual Village member said: “ As a first time mum being part of The Honeybunch Community has helped me not feel so isolated and alone, it’s important to events that benefit both you and your baby, which I have found in this group. The Virtual Village has created sa safe space to talk about all things motherhood from sleepless nights to self-care.”
The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.
As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year (2023/24) The National Lottery Community Fund awarded over half a billion pounds (£686.3 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 13,700 projects to turn their great ideas into reality.
To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk
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Contact
Denita Wallace, Telephone 07583214430 or e-mail denita@honeybunch.org.uk
Pictures are available upon request.
Notes to Editors:
About The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name.
We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.
As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:
- Come together
- Be environmentally sustainable
- Help children and young people thrive
- Enable people to live healthier lives.
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute over £600 million a year through 13,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4 billion of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £49 billion has been raised and more than 690,000 individual grants have been made across the UK - the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.