Scotland has a strong history of community food initiatives, from lunch clubs and food co-ops to youth cafés and gardening projects, all working to improve health and wellbeing in low-income areas and to address the needs of different groups of people.
Beverley and Amanda from Community Food Stop took part in a small group of community cafés looking at self-evaluation with CFHS. Recognising that the project couldn’t run without volunteers, they decided to evaluate what people gained from volunteering there and what past volunteers had gone on to do.
Read ‘Community Food Stop – evaluating outcomes for volunteers’ here
Caroline and Angela from North Edinburgh Arts Café took part in a small group of community cafés looking at self-evaluation with CFHS. They wanted to know what café volunteers gained from their experience there, from achievements to community connectedness.
Read ‘North Edinburgh Arts community café – evaluating the volunteer journey’ here
The Usual Place community café was established to provide high-quality, strengths-based training around catering and hospitality for young adults aged 16-26 with additional support needs, with the aim of enabling them to move on to employment. The café is based in the centre of Dumfries.
Read ‘The Usual Place – catering and hospitality skills for young people’ hereShiona from West Lothian Council Health Improvement Team describes how the ‘Get Cooking’ programme can tailor what they offer to be as inclusive as possible. Their courses are often part of a wider programme of activities with the focus on education, raising awareness and building skills.
Read ‘Get Cooking – delivering cooking courses in West Lothian’ hereThis case study focuses on the challenges of sourcing low cost, healthy food for young families in the small rural village of Kelloholm. Working with FareShare, the Action for Children Family Centre families provides cooking courses and food deliveries.
Read ‘Action for Children – sourcing low cost, healthy food locally’ hereCFINE (Community Food Initiatives North East) offers a holistic community food and health service which includes supporting people with issues such as money, employment, energy costs and housing. This case study looks at how they use cooking groups to link people with other agencies who can help.
Read ‘CFINE – signposting support through cooking groups’ here
‘Get Cooking, Get Shopping’ courses focus on basic nutrition, food safety, cooking methods and recipes for people in the south of Glasgow. This case study looks at how they identify participants who may be struggling to have enough food, both before and during the courses.
Read ‘Get Cooking, Get Shopping – reaching people experiencing food insecurity’ here
This case study focuses on Edinburgh Community Food’s course with women who are in the criminal justice system and explores making recipe adaptations for participants who may be facing significant barriers to having a healthy balanced diet.
Read ‘Edinburgh Community Food – cooking with women in the criminal justice system’ here
Edinburgh Cyrenians Good Food tutor ran a session on public health issues with the first-year nursing students at Queen Margaret University. Students also learned about the role the Cyrenians and other third sector organisations play in improving people’s health in the community.
Read ‘Cyrenians Good Food tutor goes to Queen Margaret University’ here
Kate’s Kitchen – evaluating their impact and finding out service users’ views
Anne and Karen from Kate’s Kitchen took part in a small group of community cafés looking at self-evaluation with CFHS. They wanted to find out what difference the ‘pay what you can’ café made to people’s lives and how users thought the gardening service could improve.
Read ‘Kate’s Kitchen – evaluating their impact and finding out service users’ views’ here