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Policy news

Funding awarded to address poverty

The Scottish Government recently announced funding awarded from its Cash-First Fund and the Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund. Eight partnerships across Scotland have been funded to support their cash first activities and nine organisations were funded to explore promising approaches or redesign services to maximise their impact on child poverty. More information about the funding …

Also posted in Funding news, News |

Good Food Nation plan consultation

This Scottish Government consultation on the Good Food Nation Plan covers the content of the first national Good Food Nation Plan and asks your views on the Good Food Nation Outcomes; ways of measuring progress; and how different groups envision life in a Good Food Nation. The Good Food Nation Plan sets out the following; …

Also posted in Research and consultations |

Best Start Foods stakeholder events

The regulations for Social Security Scotland’s Best Start Foods were laid in parliament on 07 December 2023. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the changes from these amendments will come into effect from 26 February 2024. While the main aim is to remove any income thresholds for qualifying benefits, this further aligns Best Start Foods with the …

Also posted in Events and conferences, News |

Scottish Health Survey

The Scottish Government has published the results of the 2022 Scottish Health Survey, providing information on the health and factors relating to health of people living in Scotland. Relevant findings include: – 32% of all adults were in the healthy weight category. – Around two-thirds of all adults (67%) were living with overweight (including obesity), with a higher prevalence …

Also posted in News, Research and consultations |

Menu for All

Edinburgh Community Food recently launched Edinburgh’s new food poverty network. ‘Menu for all’ will combine food and support access aims to give Edinburgh the scalable capacity to respond to need, build and coordinate capacity across the city, and provide accessible and reliable services of support to those most in need in times of crisis. Its …

Also posted in News |

Programme for Government

Equality, Opportunity, and Community is the focus for the Scottish Government this year. The range of food-related actions in the programme include: plans to introduce measures that will extend eligibility to the Best Start Foods scheme; ongoing work towards the expansion of free school meals; taking forward actions within the Cash-First: Towards Ending the Need …

Also posted in News |

Scottish Government Cash-First Fund

The Fund has now opened for applications and will remain open for five weeks – closing at 5pm on Friday 1 September 2023. The Guidance Note and Application Form are available online: https://www.gov.scot/publications/cash-first-fund-form-and-guidance/pages/overview/ We welcome applications from Partnerships made up of public sector and third sector organisations for collaborative work to improve urgent local access …

Also posted in Funding news, News |

Cash-first: Towards Ending the Need for Food Banks in Scotland: plan

A commitment to a ‘cash-first’ approach to tackling food insecurity is at the heart of a new Scottish Government plan to reduce the need for people to turn to food banks. The plan sets out nine actions which will be taken over the next three years to improve responses to food insecurity. The role of …

Also posted in CFHS updates, News |

New Public Health Nutrition Strategy from Food Standards Scotland

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has published its new Public Health Nutrition Strategy which sets out their revised approach to addressing their objective of improving the diet of the population in Scotland. The new strategy highlights  the importance of, and plans for, ongoing surveillance and data collection, as well as collaboration and partnership working. The strategy …

Also posted in News |

Ending the need for food banks

In late October, the Scottish Government published its consultation analysis on the Ending the need for food banks draft plan. It received over 400 responses to the consultation that took place late 2021 and early 2022. Overall, respondents agreed with the approaches the draft plan has to ensure cash first approaches and pathways out of …

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