Nutrition and Dietetic Health Improvement Team - Annual Report 2019 - 2020

Nutrition and Dietetic Health Improvement Team

Annual Report 2019 -2020 & Covid-19 Lockdown Activities For more information visit Community Nutrition

www.nhsforthvalley.com/nutrition

If you would like further information or to get in touch with us please email fv.fvcommunitynutrition@nhs.scot

Who we are and what we do...

The Nutrition and Dietetic Health Improvement Team aim to ensure that staff, volunteers and communities have access to the knowledge, skills and resources needed to enable others to eat well and develop a healthy relationship with food. We provide funding, training, practical resources and advisory support to staff and volunteers who can act on addressing food issues.

Our main areas of work are settings (early years, education, prisons, workplaces and NHS), communities (food poverty and skills development) and campaigns. We believe in starting young and working with the groups with the greatest health needs.

Below are just some of the ways we have worked with our partners throughout this year. If you would be interested in finding out more information or would like some training, please get in touch.

Advisory an Strategic Support – An Overview of our Work Our team works with local authority and third sector partners to develop projects and plans that help to address the barriers to eating well. This can be any piece of work that improves the access and affordability of nutritious sustainable food and vitamins for vulnerable groups or that improves breastfeeding rates.

This year for example we have been: • Supporting a range of organisations and settings in the planning, implementation and evaluation of small food projects (see examples of this within our report) • Connecting organisations to enable the sharing of good practice e.g. we have arranged observation visits to established growing projects, food larders and cooking groups

• Providing advisory support to organisations on food safety and hygiene • Working with partners in Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire on sustainable, dignified solutions to food challenges.

For example, in Clackmannanshire there is a new Sustainable Food Places working group who are developing an action plan with involvement from communities and a broad range of partners. This has the ambition of the area achieving the Sustainable Food Places Award • Sharing best practice guidance with organisations to help ensure that nutritionally adequate food choices are procured e.g. food aid providers, nurseries, prison settings • Developing new digital information and resources that promote clear and consistent public health nutrition information via social media and partnerships • Working on literacy friendly and sensory resources to ensure that information is accessible by vulnerable groups e.g. pictorial recipes and Braille cooking facilitators pack • Taking a targeted approach to our training, grants provision and the development of nutrition resources by focussing on those who need these most

• Supporting the set up of services in areas where there are gaps e.g. funding the set up of food larders in areas of need

• Supporting volunteers and cascading training to upskill communities and build community capacity

• Testing out new ideas to increase access to/ uptake of food and vitamins and health advice e.g. testing out supper clubs to engage families, providing vitamins in nursery settings

• Supporting income maximisations work e.g. the promotion of Best Start Foods

Food Training

Website Activity from April 2019 to March 2020...

April 19 to March 2020 and beyond...

Total Website – 21,850 Hits Community Nutrition Website – 11,641 Hits Choose To Lose Website – 10,360 Hits A Covid-19 Food and Health signposting page was uploaded to our Community Nutrition website, it’s had over 600 hits since it was first launched in March.

Through the wide variety of free nutrition and food related training courses we offer, we build capacity and improve the knowledge, skills and confidence of people both living and working in Forth Valley, encouraging and enabling them to eat well and develop a good relationship with food. As an approved REHIS training centre, we offer a range of nationally accredited food and health courses, which helps increase employability throughout local communities of Forth Valley.

Social Media Activity We share details of training courses, campaign materials and useful food and nutrition resources via NHS Forth Valley’s Social Media platforms.

This results in a much wider audience and we can reach and share our messages and resources further, in some cases sharing our resources with other health boards to use. This creates an opportunity for partnership working and less time is wasted reinventing the wheel creating new resources that already exist.

THE ROYAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INSTITUTE OF SCOTLAND

Numbers of people trained Setting the Table and Early Years Nutrition Training

96

students across 3 Forth Valley College Campuses

Infant Feeding and Relationship Building Training

95

NHS Staff – Health Visitors

Mini Steps Training

15

to 6 different organisations

Make and Taste Sessions

35

to Nursery and Council staff

REHIS Elementary Food Hygiene

42

to groups throughout Forth Valley

REHIS Elementary Cooking Skills

10

to 3 different organisations

REHIS Elementary Food and Health

5

to staff from 2 organisations

Health Behaviour Change Training ran in partnership with Health Promotion

17

to the Dietetic Team

ChooseToLose@Work Training

2

Staff at HMP Glenochil

REHIS Practical Cooking Skills in Lifeskills in Prison

36

6 groups of 6 prisoners

REHIS Cooking with Groups

2

Prison officers

Make and Taste Sessions

20

delivered to prisoners and their families at HMP Glenochil and HMP Cornton Vale Family Centres

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Funding for Food Related Activities Our grants and funding applications help and support local charities, communities and organisations take forward and develop health improvement activities involving food whether it be around growing, cooking or introducing healthier food options.

2 Funding agreements awarded: Women’s Criminal Justice, Falkirk Council – Ran REHIS Cookery Classes Upskilling with a knowledge of food hygiene and cooking skills – Supplying attendees who successfully completed the course with a nationally recognised certificate and qualification that will increase their employability opportunities.

Forth Valley Sensory Centre, Camelon ‘Cooking without Looking’ Cooking courses for those with sensory issues and development of Braille recipe book.

24 Food Activity Grants were donated to local

groups, charities and organisations – For example church charity groups, toddler groups, out of hours school clubs and other mental health and well being and family support organisations to take forward food related activities.

Here are some examples of how the funding was used to support food activities: Hub @ Bo’ness Old Kirk Ran family cooking classes to help tackle food poverty during school holidays.

Cyreanians HIVE Group at Dollar Park, Falkirk Purchased induction hobs and cooking equipment to support online Cook A Long groups.

Alva Toddlers at Cochrane Hall – Offered healthy snacks to toddlers and parents attending the group.

Cowie Nursery – Ran a growing project with the kids and then Make and Taste food activities helped the kids engage with the food they had grown.

Connect Alloa – Used food as an engagement tool: allowing young people and young adults to make healthy snacks and meals.

Beancross Community Project – Ran a growing project and used a grant to set up a food larder at the local primary school.

Clackmannanshire Family Support Service (Blue House Action for Children) – Ran training with families on how to cook well on a budget and also provided training on starting solids.

500 fruit and vegetable bags with recipes were taken by families at prison visits.

New Resources Developed

Forth Valley Food Directory We have started to create and populate an online Food Directory on our Community Nutrition website. It has details of all the Breastfeeding Groups and Recovery Cafes throughout Forth Valley – However due to the current Covid-19 situation these groups may not be running at full capacity. We plan to continue to develop this online food directory.

Visit our Food Directory.

Snack Ideas for the Under 5’s Capacity Building Brochure Our Capacity Building Brochure and Training Flier is now available to download from our Community Nutrition – Training webpage. It has an overview of the training, funding, practical resources and advisory support our team can offer staff and volunteers addressing food issues within our local communities.

This leaflet has suggestions of healthy snacks for young children as well as ideas on how to encourage children to develop good eating habits that will support a child’s healthy growth and development into adulthood.

This leaflet can be downloaded from our Community Nutrition – Early Years wepage.

Caffeine – O – Meter Toolkit Let’s Make A Bite To Eat This is a fun food flipbook gives individuals and groups ideas and inspiration on how to put together healthy meals and snacks in minutes. The pages are divided into 5 different sections, each containing a variety of foods from the 5 food groups from within the Eatwell Guide. The flipbook also contains key healthy eating messages with information on how to prepare, put together and serve a variety of foods and dishes.

To view an electronic version of this resource, visit www.abitetoeat.org.uk

The Caffeine-O-Meter toolkit can be used with individuals or with small groups and can be used as a calculator for estimating daily caffeine intake. The toolkit contains a poster illustrating the amount of caffeine in popular cold and hot drinks with caffeine facts on the back, there are also a set of drink picture cards that can be used as an activity to arrange them in order of caffeine content.

For more information on any of these resources please email

fv.fvcommunitynutrition@nhs.scot

A spotlight... on Case Studies...

Food in Forth Valley Volunteers in Tullibody hand out 'tattie packs' to families

Volunteers and staff in Tullibody have taken gardening out to people's own homes during the coronavirus lockdown.

While Tullibody Community Garden had to lock the gates due to the Covid-19 crisis, volunteers and staff from Tullibody Family Centre found a way to keep activities going.

Green-fingered volunteers made up packs for growing potatoes at home with staff from the "Blue Hoose" – as the family centre is known locally – delivering the kit along with food parcels. The packs come with a bag to grow in, some compost, seeds and instructions for families to get started.

Janet Gowran, the garden volunteer who made up the "tattie packs", said: "It's great to be able to help our local families get some hands on gardening experience despite the current lockdown”.

"Everyone can grow something – even if it's just some herbs on the windowsill.

The original project to help families grow their own, harvest and cook with potatoes is being funded by NHS Forth Valley Nutrition and Dietetic Health Improvement Team's Food Activity Grant. Fidelma Guest, NHS Forth Valley Dietitian said: "It is great that families are interested in growing.

I think the growing at home will have many wellbeing benefits for families – the family centre and Tullibody Community Garden are doing amazing work."

The 10th Global BIG Latch On 2019

To support the Global Big Latch On event, as well as to promote the new Scotland wide Breastfeeding Friendly Award, NHS Forth Valley Infant Feeding Team in partnership with Breastfeeding Network (BfN) and Association of Breastfeeding mothers (ABM) hosted two events in tandem on Saturday 3rd August. The Global Big Latch On events were held at the Kelpies in the Helix Park, Falkirk and at the Alloa Tower. The Global Big Latch On event was promoted via social media, where women were encouraged to take part by coming along to an event or by adding a photo or a comment to the Global Big Latch On Facebook page or Instagram with #mybiglatchon2019.

Promotional posters were displayed in NHS Forth Valley Hospitals and Health Centres and women attending breastfeeding groups were encouraged to come along.

After signing into the event women and their families were given a welcome card and ‘goodie bag’ which contained supportive information about breastfeeding and vitamin D supplementation. They also received a bottle of water and boob shaped biscuits. At Alloa Tower, boob shaped cakes and filled rolls were available for the participants. There were many photo opportunities with women enjoying having their photograph taken with the selfie photo frame. At 10.30 a.m. the Global Latch On time, there were 48 babies and children being breastfed with over 100 others supporting mothers, these included partners, grandparents, siblings and friends.

ChooseToLose@Work for Staff at HMP Glenochil Written by HR Business Partner, HMP Glenochil:“Last year we decided to deliver the NHS Forth Valley ChooseToLose@Work weight management programme with our staff at HMP Glenochil – it tied in perfectly with our staff health and wellbeing initiatives. The in house training provided for myself and my HR colleague by Pamela and Wendy from the Community Nutrition Team was excellent, very informative and not only upskilled our own knowledge in this area but enhanced our confidence in delivery of the Choose to Lose programme. We had 20 staff commence the programme from all sectors of our workforce and arranged sessions at a time when all staff were available and breaks crossed over providing ease of access to attend. At the end of the 10 weeks we still had 16 participants and as a group they lost 88 pounds!

Feedback was very positive. Staff enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, the varying topics covered each week, the weekly handouts and the supporting visual resources accompanying each topic covered were the ultimate winner. The alcohol, food labelling and exercise/activity weeks were particularly popular. The quizzes helped inform of misconceptions around foods and there were quite a few surprises when people had to rank the food items against fat contents of the test tubes! Probably the one item that really made people think was the fat blobs, these models representing the texture and volume of fat proved a great motivator for many especially when people had a lower weight loss than anticipated. Seeing and feeling what 1 pound of fat looks like, made them rethink their achievements and help keep them motivated and on track. The online resources were well utilised and the database of foods/calories helped as a ready reckoner.

I would like to thank NHS Forth Valley Community Nutrition Team for making a wealth of resources available to support our delivery of this programme and for the kind donations of cookbooks and water bottles, that we issued for our ‘Slimmer of the Week/ Month’ which added a competitive edge to the classes. Recently I have had a number of enquiries asking when ChooseToLose@Work will be

run again, which is an endorsement itself of the programme.

Following on from our success with ‘Choose to Lose’ last year it will be our intention to run with this again when Covid restrictions have eased.”

Braehead Community Garden – Growing For the Local Community During lockdown a much reduced but dedicated team at Braehead Community Garden have prepared, planted and tended raised beds with fruit and vegetables to share with the local community. They decided to use all available raised beds at the Community Garden to grow fresh fruit and veg to share with garden members, volunteers and the wider community. Crops such as potatoes, radish, lettuce, beetroot and tomatoes were freshly picked and wheeled around to North Parish Church hall where they were made available though the Heart of Braehead Food Project.

Our Community Nutrition Team have been supporting the garden on this journey to provide fresh produce for those in need in their own community. We have provided guidance around safe guarding themselves and others within the garden and how to keep to the government’s guidelines around social distancing. The team have developed opportunities for the garden to work with other groups and to share good practice. The outdoor space is now being developed to open up safely to others as we move forward to Phase 4 as a space for mental well being; growing and cooking training.

More Team News...

Our Success Stories

A warm welcome to our newest team members.....

We are pleased to announce that our team has grown and flourished over the past year. We have three new Community Food Development Workers that have now been in post for almost a year and work hard ensuring our local communities, organisations, charity groups and their staff and volunteers have access to food and health training, nutrition resources, funding and advisory support to take forward food related activities at a local level.

This work ultimately helps reduce health inequalities and supports those most vulnerable within our local communities.

We also would like to welcome Claire Houstoun, Claire works as a Health Improvement Specialist within the team and helps with the development of resources and supports the food workers with training, working in partnership with local organisations and groups.

Claire Houstoun Health Improvement Specialist Forth Valley Wide Donna Rodgers Community Food Development Worker Covers Stirling Area Ellen Cowie Community Food Development Worker Covers the Clackmannanshire Area Mairi Wright Community Food Development Worker Covers Falkirk Area

If you would like to get in touch with any members of our team then please email fv.fvcommunitynutrition@nhs.scot

Well done Wendy you’re a Double Winner!

A huge ‘congratulations’ to Wendy, Community Food Development Officer who works across the 3 local prisons – Last year Wendy who won 2 awards in the space of a week! The first award was the Healthier Lifestyle Award at the 2019 Scottish Health Awards. Wendy was nominated by her work colleagues from NHS Forth Valley and Scottish Prison Service staff from the 3 local prisons.

Wendy was up against two other finalists from other health boards, but on the night she managed to lift the trophy. The next week she managed to scoop a second award – the ‘Inspiration Award’ at the NHS Forth Valley Staff Awards, 2019.

Well done, Wendy!

A flavour of our teams work during lockdown....

Created a COVID-19 and Food Signposting Webpage Received over 600 Hits since it’s launch in late March – During April this COVID-19 page received 30% of the overall hits to the Community Nutrition website.

Produced a ‘Coronavirus and Food in the Community‘ Video COVID-19 Community Food Response Grants – 4 grants awarded • Hallglen food larder – Bought fruit and vegetables for online cooking classes.

to support those shopping and delivering food and groceries to self isolating or shielding individuals and families in our local communities. The video was shared via numerous social media avenues and has received around 1.4K views. View our Video on You Tube.

• Roots Project in Bonnybridge – Bought slow cookers for families and individuals who don't have any cooking facilities such as a cookers.

• Bo’ness and Blackness Community Response Covid-19 – Used funding to support them set up a food bank to deal with increasing demand from vulnerable individuals and families.

• Caring and Connected Clackmannan – Clackmannan Development Trust – Used funding to support their local community providing food and prescriptions to residents before government funding was made available.

Created a Covid-19 and Food Flier that was included within the Food Parcels given to vulnerable or self isolating individuals that were discharged from Forth Valley Royal Hospital – The flier included details of where and how to get emergency help with accessing food and shoppingduring the Covid- 19 crisis.

Developed 7 Food Hygiene and Food Safety online modules for community groups, staff and volunteers to access free information, download resources to display eg posters and test their knowledge using a range of interactive quizzes.

7 Quizzes were developed to help create interaction during the online delivery of the courses – The quizzes covered topics such as Allergens, Hand Hygiene, Cooking Temperatures and Cross Contamination and they can be downloaded from our Community Nutrition website.

5 Food Hygiene Posters

2000 Community Nutrition Bags

were created and 100 copies of each were printed to be sent to local community groups that deliver or cook food for the community. They were also uploaded to the Community Nutrition website – for free download.

were printed with details of our Community Nutrition website and local COVID Emergency Food Support Helpline numbers – The bags were donated to a number of local charities and community groups and were used to deliver food parcels to those most vulnerable in our communities.

Using our new online Food Hygiene modules – we ran online Food Hygiene Training with around 30 members of staff and volunteers from local community groups.

10 ‘Six Step Pictorial Recipe Cards’

100 Fridge and Freezer Thermometers were donated to local groups, charities, food banks and larders to help them keep a check on their fridge and freezer temperatures.

These cheap and easy recipes use only a few basic ingredients and in six simple, pictorial steps you can create tasty meals in minutes. The recipes have been printed and are being sent to local food banks and larders to distribute with food parcels, they can also be downloaded from our Community Nutrition Website.

What next?

A flavour of what’s to come: Bring our recipes to life by producing short creative cook a long videos.

Develop a set of How to Grow..... videos.

Growing Green @ HMPYOI Polmont - Work in partnership with SPS staff and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society to transform open land space into an outdoor growing and learning allotment area. Staff will engage with people in prison and run growing lifeskills courses - plan to use produce grown in the training kitchen for life skills cooking classes.

As always we will continue to build on our resources with a particular focus on digital versions, our programme of nutrition training, investigating different ways in which it can be delivered and funding opportunities to help us engage with NHS staff, local authority and third sector organisations and local communities..

Nutrition & Dietetic Health Improvement Team

For more information please visit our website www.nhsforthvalley.com/nutrition

or email our team fv.fvcommunitynutrition@nhs.scot

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