Current work

Please contact us if you would like more information on any of these areas of work.

UK Liaison

16 April saw the last in a series of Food Access Network/FSA UK Liaison events, supported by CFHS,  take place at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff. This networking day was an opportunity for organisations and relevant players from across the UK to come together and share their knowledge and practice around food access and older people, and explore how to highlight the importance of this topic more widely.

A small delegation from Scotland was present and the Community Health and Regeneration Project in Midlothian (CHIRP) contributed an informative workshop on the Midlothian Food Train and more generally on their food and health activities with older people and the wider community. Other workshops included research from Northern Ireland, intergenerational cooking workshops in Wales and food access for older people in Oxford.

The report of this event is available at www.sustainweb.org/page.php?id=442
 
The Welsh Consumer Council’s report on ‘Tackling Malnutrition Among Older People in the Community’ is now available as a pdf from www.wales-consumer.org.uk (scroll down to latest news)
 
For more information on the Welsh Assembly Government Strategy for Older People in Wales visit http://wales.gov.uk/topics/olderpeople/publications/strategy?lang=en
 
For more info on research taking place in Northern Ireland visit the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland's website www.consumercouncil.org.uk/publications/s/10/q/s/
 
For more information on the Midlothian Food Train, phone 01875 823 922.

Small Grant Scheme

We distribute a total of £75,000 each year through our small grants scheme. Groups and agencies can apply for between £500 and £3000 to develop healthy eating activities with or within low-income groups based in Scotland.

The small grants scheme for 2008 opened on 22 April and closed on Friday 27 June. See our funding section for more details.

Learning and sharing opportunities around food, health and homelessness


All 32 successful applicants to the food, health and homelessness capacity building fund have now received, or are in the process of receiving, funding towards developing food activities that enhance the confidence, life skills and independence of their homeless service-users.
 
The quality of the applications we received was impressive and we were enthused by the wealth of activity planned, some of which is already underway. Activities funded are hugely varied, ranging from the development of a growing project in Fife and promoting peer education with young people at risk of homelessness in Edinburgh, to developing cooking sessions with young families fleeing domestic violence in Dundee and promoting social inclusion among elderly homeless men in the Western Isles.
 
We look forward to sharing information from recipient projects both in future editions of Fare Choice and in Food Matters, the e-newsletter on food, health and homelessness, which you can subscribe to by contacting Claire.

On 9 June NHS Grampian and Aberdeen Foyer, supported by CFHS, held the second of three food, health and homelessness seminars planned for the Grampian region. It brought together organisations from across Moray that were interested in exploring how food could be integrated into their work, with a view to potentially setting up a forum for workers to access more information and resources and to share best practice.
 
The event focused on a series of presentations, case study-based workshops and a group discussion. In the closing discussion three themes emerged that participants felt they would be interested in taking forward.

  • The first was the importance of networking to highlight what is happening both locally and nationally, and to be aware of what resources are available to enhance their work and to encourage, where possible, working in partnership.
  • The second was that there are issues around what can be offered in terms of food literacy skills to their clients that live in accommodation that offers little or no cooking facilities (e.g. microwave or kettle only).
  • The third was how fresh fruit and vegetables can be made affordable and available to their clients staying in rural areas of Moray. 
Feedback from the event suggested that it was very useful and had raised the participants’ awareness of what was available in terms of resources and support from both agencies and each other. Work is underway to organise the third event of this type in Aberdeenshire, Grampian. For further information on any on these issues please contact Annette Johnson, Food Access Advisor, NHS Grampian on annette.johnson2@nhs.net. 

If you work elsewhere in the country and feel that your area would benefit from a similar opportunity, please get in touch to discuss your ideas.
CFHS is keen to support organisations in the homeless sector to strengthen their capacity/ability to deliver food and health promoting activity by helping to increase the number of accredited REHIS Elementary Food and Health course tutors in the homeless sector. If you work with homeless people or people at risk of homelessness and would like to find out more about this initiative, please download an information sheet (word 320 kb) and application form (word 314 kb).

Organisations are always telling us how much they value hearing about the experiences of other groups and how much this helps them reflect on their practice and draw inspiration to develop their own activities. This is why we are offering the opportunity to take part in one of two study tours that we are organising with partner organisations.
 
The study tours will take place in Aberdeen on 17 September and Edinburgh on 25 September, and will offer participants a unique opportunity to learn more about innovative projects that are providing services for homeless people while operating as social enterprises. Participants will come away from the study tours inspired and enthused, with practical ideas about developing food activities and an increased understanding of the role that social enterprise is playing for organisations involved in delivering services to homeless people.
 
The study tours are for community food and health organisations wanting to find out more about social enterprise from social enterprises and/or involved in work with homeless people.
 
If you are interested in applying to go on one of the tours, please download an application form (PDF 177kb). Please remember to state which study tour you are interested in. 

0-5 Pre-school children and parents including infant nutrition

A roundtable discussion on this theme in May brought together a range of groups working with and developing approaches of effective practice that address local needs, from weaning initiatives to parent and toddler groups and work with pre-school children.  A report on this discussion is now available to download from the Children and Families section of the publications library.  

Following discussions with community based food and health projects working with parents and children (0-5) at this roundtable discussion, a Sustain Food Access Network UK Liaison event on a similar theme, plus feedback from our small grant recipients, CFHS has been discussing with Evaluation Support Scotland (ESS) the best way to raise the profile of this particular work and have its impact better appreciated by planners and policy makers.

The first stage of a proposed longer term project is now taking place. CFHS is supporting a number of projects that work with parents and children (0-5) to improve their self evaluation skills. ESS has been commissioned to lead this work to support projects to collect better evidence for their own learning, show the difference they are making and ultimately be able to influence other people about the benefits of community based work with parents and children (0-5) that address local needs and national priorities. Six diverse projects were recruited from a base group of 33 projects who were involved in either the discussions mentioned above or were small grant recipients in the last two years. Two other projects that applied to be part of the project, but were unsuccessful, have been offered alternative evaluation support. Their progress will also be traced and included in later stages of the project.

Participatory Appraisal

Participatory Appraisal (PA) is a family of approaches and methods which enable local people to explore issues that are important to them. The methods are very visual and help people get involved in decision making processes. It is particularly useful to reach those who are usually excluded. It is being used in Scotland in a range of community based food and health activities.

Sixteen very enthusiastic individuals from community food and health projects in Scotland took to the streets of Dumfries during September as part of a five day residential training course. The group was divided into two groups to undertake two different pieces of work on behalf of NHS Dumfries and Galloway. One of the groups was involved in finding out more about the food choices and food access issues of homeless people in the city. The group’s findings were then fed back to an NHS Dumfries and Galloway representative, who in turn will feed back to the Dumfries and Galloway Health and Homelessness Steering Group for inclusion in the local NHS Health and Homelessness Action Plan.

For a taste of what happens on the five-day residential course, see the 2003 PA residential report (PDF 4216kb).

Social enterprise

We have written a briefing sheet (PDF 140 kb)  on ‘Banking and financial services for social enterprise and community based organisations’ and have planned another on ‘Social Enterprise and community food activity – what you need to know’.

In February we ran a one day training event ‘Doing the business’ on key aspects of social enterprise.   Get in touch if you have ideas for other training events around this theme.

We have published Minding Their Own Business (PDF 3079kb): an introductory guide to social enterprise for those supporting local communities tackling inequalities in diet and health.

In February 2008 we held two one-day training events 'Getting Down to Business' to be held in Edinburgh and Inverness. Notes from these events will be available shortly.

REHIS food and health course

We are currently working with Royal Environmental Health Institute for Scotland and other partners to develop an advanced Food and Health course.

In 2007 we completed a promotion of the Elementary Food and Health course that allowed low-income communities to take part in a course for free. This work was joint funded by CFHS and the Food Standards Agency Scotland. A brief evaluation of this work (PDF 1067 kb) is available.

Recently we started working with the Scottish Learning Disability Dietetic Network to promote the REHIS course amongst learning disability carers. CFHS will be funding a group of nine people to register as REHIS food and health tutors and/or deliver a REHIS course with learning disability carers throughout Scotland. The group will meet up in early autumn to discuss how they got on.

Work in retailing

CFHS is currently working with the Scottish Grocers Federation (SGF) and community food networks to roll out the SGF 'Healthy Living' programme to community food co-ops and community food outlets. A pilot project will begin in September in three areas - Glasgow, East and Central Scotland, and Aberdeen and North East Scotland. Members of community food co-ops and outlets in these areas willl have the opportunity to take part in the 'Healthy Living' programme's training and make use of the promotional materials.

The pilot will be externally evaluated to identify how useful these resources are to community food outlets; how the resources could be adapted to better suit their needs; and if using the resources increases their customers' awareness of the 'Healthy Living' brand in their neighbourhood shops.

The pilot takes forward some of the suggestions made at a meeting held in January at which community food and health organisations involved with or interested in the 'Healthy Living' programme, SGF, and the Scottish Government discussed the programme and how it could be developed with community food retailers. Further information is available from the note of this meeting PDF 74 kb.

The pilot builds on innovative work with local shops carried out by SGF and community food and health projects in Edinburgh (Khush Dil), Paisley (Have a Heart Paisley) and Grampian (with community food outlets).

CFHS also commissioned a scoping study into the potential for collective action by the community and voluntary sectors in east/central Scotland to tackle food access through improvements in the supply chain infrastructure. The report (PDF 1130 kb) is now available and the local food co-op networks are committed to exploiting its findings.

CFHS is also on the board of the Community Retailing Network, which represents a number of community-owned shops in some of Scotland’s remotest communities.

Community-based food and health activity online searchable directory

Our previous directory (hard copy publication) was very well used in the past by other groups wanting to link up with others as well as other agencies wanting to target specific groups and areas across Scotland. Already our new online directory is being used similarly. So far we have had a very positive response from community food and health initiatives wanting to be included. However, we know there are many more of you out there and we are really keen to hear from you. We also realise that it takes time to fill out the application form (PDF 138 kb) and to make the process easier Ger will be in touch to support groups to sign up for our directory over the coming months. This activity will also provide us with an opportunity to maximise the sharing of information which will complement our engagement activities.

Using food to develop independent living skills     

In late 2007 we produced a guide: A Taste for Independence:using food to develop skills for life(PDF 1301 kb) which will be useful for those who are considering using food activities (such as cooking, food shopping and budgeting) to help develop the life skills of those that they work with. The guide was based on the experiences of 21 organisations working with a range of vulnerable groups, including those working with young people experiencing homelessness, people with learning disabilities and young carers. A taste for independence includes case studies and a signposting section on useful resources. We are currently in the process of considering development work on boosting the capacity of staff and organisations undertaking this type of work.  

Fare Choice

Our newsletter is produced and mailed out on a quarterly basis. Fare Choice is another resource that we use to support community based food and health activity. Individuals, groups and agencies use the publication to talk and share news, views and experiences on policy and practice. We have recently expanded the newsletter and have additional space for projects to highlight their activities. We are keen to include as much activity as possible and can provide support to anyone wishing to draw up an article for inclusion. The next edition will be available mid September.

Annual networking event

CFHS welcomed 180 participants at our annual networking conference in Edinburgh on 11 October. This was the highest attendance so far and with a busy programme of workshops on offer there were plenty of opportunities to share and learn from a broad range of activities and effective approaches being presented by groups from all over Scotland. The conference report (PDF 3562 kb) is now available.

This year's annual conference will be held at the Thistle Hotel, Glasgow on Tuesday 11 November. Further details will be available shortly.