Our Public Health Nutrition Team works with colleagues and partners from across the voluntary, local authority and NHS sectors and liaise closely with Oral Health and Health Promotion teams. Our work is driven by local and national policy documents. We engage with local communities to empower and support healthier food choices.  We use a person centred and asset based approach to improve communities nutrition knowledge and cooking skills and provide access to nutrition resources, food activity grants and accredited training around food and nutrition.

Community Nutrition

• Choose to Lose…and keep weight off for good!
  
• Choose To Lose @ Work
• Focus on your Family
• Community Food Development
• Maternal, Infant and Early Years Nutrition
• Food and Health Inequalities
• Food in Schools
• Workplace Nutrition
• Multi-Cultural Nutrition
• Nutrition Resources
• Training Courses

Community Food Grant Scheme

• Guidance Notes and Terms and Conditions

New** How to…Grow – Picture Resources

Have you ever fancied trying to grow your own vegetables at home?  Why not take a look at these easy to follow, step by step picture guides on how to grow your own.  They give clear instructions on what you need and how to get started producing your own perfect produce.  Each guide takes you through 9 simple steps from sowing, planting, nurturing through to harvesting your crops.

• How to…Grow Carrots
• How to…Grow Leeks
• How to…Grow Potatoes
• How to…Grow Tomatoes

Once you have harvested your produce why not try out some of our How To…Cook or Six Step Picture Recipes – they can be found below.

Let’s Make A Bite To Eat – Now available online as a digital version

This new fun food flipbook gives individuals and groups ideas on how to put together quick and easy, healthy meals and snacks.  The pages are divided into 5 different sections, each containing a variety of foods from the food groups within the Eatwell Guide.  Flip through each of the pages to create your perfect dish – then give it a go in the kitchen.  The flipbook also contains key healthy eating messages, food safety information, recipe ideas and has links to useful websites for more recipe ideas.

Visit Let’s Make a Bite to Eat the digital version – Click the link below and scroll down – click ‘Open the book’ for details on how to use this fun, food flipbook – www.abitetoeat.org.uk

If you would like a paper copy of Let’s Make A Bite To Eat or if you have any comments or questions please email pamela.murray@nhs.scot

**New How to…Cook – Picture Recipes

How to…Cook – Leek and Potato Soup
How to…Cook – Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
How to…Cook – Pumpkin Soup
How to…Cook – Lentil Soup
How to…Cook – Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry
How to…Cook – Chicken Fajitas
How to…Cook – Bolognaise
How to…Cook – Tomato Meatballs
How to…Cook – Chicken Stir-fry
How to…Cook – Fruity Scones
How to…Cook – Banana Loaf
How to…Cook – Fruity Flapjack

Six Step Picture Recipes

Looking for inspiration in the kitchen? 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 first three recipes were developed using only ingredients from the Scottish Government Shielding Box, the other recipes use a few basic ingredients that you may already have in your kitchen cupboards.

Tuna Pasta    Ham and Pea Rice   Corned Beef Bake   Omelette Muffins    Paprika Chicken
Fish Crumble   Carrot and Lentil Stew   Mince and Potatoes    Flatbreads  Vegetable Chilli
Banana Pancakes

• Make shopping and cooking easier with this handy Meal Planner and Shopping List

New Cook-A-Long Videos – Now available below

During lockdown our team developed these cook-a-long videos.  They have a unique style that shows the flexible use of available resources under the constraints of lockdown.  They demonstrate basic cooking skills using low cost, readily available ingredients and show how easy it is to create quick and easy family meals. Press play on the video link, make sure you have all the ingredients to hand – then watch and cook – you can pause the video at any point.  Happy Cooking!

How to… Cooking Skills – Videos

Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
Leek and Tomato Savoury Bread Bake
Cheese and Herb Scones
Meatballs and Tomato Sauce

Low Cost, Easy Meals – Videos

Fish Crumble   Download the Fish Crumble Recipe
Cottage Pie
Vegetable Chilli  Download the Vegetable Chilli Recipe
Ham and Pea Rice  Download the Ham and Pea Rice Recipe
Flatbreads  Download the Flatbread Recipe

Are you new to cooking? Or looking to develop your skills in the kitchen?

It’s often easier and more straight forward to cook when someone is actually showing you what to do – demonstrating how much of each ingredient should be added and explaining the recipe step by step.
Below are some videos that demonstrate how to and what to cook:-

Food A Fact of Life – Have some great cooking videos illustrating how to get started.  Videos about measuring and preparing ingredients including basic knife skills, using kitchen equipment and the cooker and how to make basic sauces.

• Food Skills and Cooking Techniques Poster – Download this free Food A Fact of Life poster and display in your kitchen or cooking area – this will help you to prepare, cook and serve a range of dishes.

British Nutrition Foundation – Have some Cook-A-Long Videos – as part of Healthy Eating Week @ Home.  From quick and easy pizzas to pea soup with a quick flatbread.

Parent Club – Have a range of Cook-A-Long Videos – that can help you cook quick and easy meals for the family. Why not get your children helping in the kitchen – it’s often much easier following a video instead of a written recipe and you can pause or rewind if you need to.

Other Easy and Quick Family Recipes

Delve deep into the back of your kitchen cupboards and you’ll be surprised you might even be able to create a healthy meal for the family in minutes with what you already have. Here are some great recipes – why not give them a go?

• How To… Recipe Sheets – Visit Nutrition Resources and scroll down to How To Recipe sheets.
• BBC Food – Store cupboard dinner ideas on a budget.
• British Nutrition Foundation – Recipes.
• Love Canned Food – Have a great range of recipes to try.
• Eat Better Feel Better – This is a brilliant website featured on the ParentClub site. It is packed full of useful information on healthy eating for the family. From quick and easy family recipes to handy meal planners and also Cook A Long videos to help you get started in the kitchen.
• Let’s Get Cooking at Home – Hundreds of inspiring recipes – Meatless Meals, Fakeaways, One Pot Wonders, Recipes for Curry Lovers and much more….
• Change4Life – Recipes – Looking for easy, quick meal ideas, get inspired on the Change4Life website or download the Meal Mixer App to help plan your meals. Please note that some services on this website are restricted to people living in England and Wales, as this is a Public Health England Campaign / Website.

Citizens Advice Scotland – Money Map Tool

This new tool provides clear self-help options on improving your income and cutting your living costs.

• Money Map Tool
• Scotland’s Citizens Advice Helpline – 0800 028 1456 – Open Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm

New Online Food Safety Modules

If you are from a community group that is offering food deliveries or an emergency COVID-19 group set up to deliver shopping and medicine to those self isolating, shielding or the more vulnerable members of your community – these food safety modules may be useful to train staff and volunteers around the key food safety, personal and hand hygiene messages.  The modules have quizzes attached so once individuals have worked their way through them, they can test their learning with a multiple choice quiz. There are also downloadable posters and resources that can be printed off and displayed in kitchen, packing or entrance areas to remind staff, volunteers and visitors of the importance of hand hygiene, social (physical) distancing and storing and cooking foods at the correct temperatures.

Food Safety Modules

• Module 1 – Introduction to Food Safety Modules
• Module 2 – Hand and Personal Hygiene
• Module 3 – Storing and Delivering Food in the Community
• Module 4 – 4 C’s of Food Safety
• Module 5 – Allergens
• Module 6 – COVID-19 Specific Advice
  
• Module 7 – Shopping and Delivering Groceries during COVID-19

Posters

• Handwashing Poster – Food Standards Agency
• 5 key’s to Food Safety – World Health Organization
• Important cooking and food storage temperatures
• Food Storage
• Social Distancing – 2 metre Poster

Quizzes – Question and Answer Sheets

Test your knowledge with these quizzes – they are best used in conjunction with the training modules above.

Allergen Quiz – Questions
Allergen Quiz – Answers

Cleaning Quiz – Questions
Cleaning Quiz – Answers

Cooking Temperatures Quiz – Questions
Cooking Temperatures Quiz – Answers

COVID-19 Quiz – Questions
COVID-19 Quiz – Answers

Cross Contamination Quiz – Questions
Cross Contamination Quiz – Answers

Food Hygiene and Cooking Quiz – Questions
Food Hygiene and Cooking Quiz – Answers

Hand Hygiene Quiz – Questions
Hand Hygiene Quiz – Answers

Annual Report 2019-2020 + Covid 19 Activities

Click the link below to see our Nutrition and Dietetic Health Improvement Team Annual Report 2019-2020.  It gives a flavour of the work we have been involved with over the past year, it also captures our teams successes, achievements and highlights how we adapted and reprioritized our workplans during lockdown. To find out more click the link below and view it online as a magazine :-

Alternatively view as a pdf or download here.

Food, Nutrition and Health Case Studies

Below are some case studies of the work our Community Nutrition team have undertaken. They demonstrate the range of work our team has been involved in, from developing new resources through to working with local community organisations, providing them with support and training to build capacity and increase the nutrition knowledge of their staff and volunteers.

• Case Study – Food Safety Training Modules and Resources
• Case Study – Hallglen Food Pantry

Further Online Food Related Training

If you are looking for further online food related courses and training visit:-

• REHIS – The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland – Qualifications for Communities – REHIS run a range of accredited food hygiene and food and health training courses, some of which are available online.
• Food Standards Agency – Online Food Safety Training – Free online training courses for businesses including allergen training and food labelling courses.

Home Food Fact Checker – Get advice on some common household food safety questions from the Food Standards Agency.

Forth Valley Food Directory

This NHS Forth Valley Food Directory includes a range of food services and we are always adding more categories to the directory.  We started with Recovery Cafes and local Breastfeeding Groups and plan to add Community Cafes, Food Banks, Food Larders, Community Gardens etc to this directory. If you feel your organisation could be added into this directory please email: Pamela Murray,  for further information.

How to use this online Food Directory Map

Click the small arrow on the top left of the bar below to reveal the categories within the Food Directory.
Then click the box next to the category of interest, a red tick appears and each establishment is pin pointed on the map.
You can click on each pin to find out more eg opening times, full postal address…(Note – some of these groups may not be running at this time due to coronavirus)
If you click ‘All items’ under each category title – a list of establishments from that category appears, you can then click on the one of interest to find out more.  A red title banner has a small arrow at the top right – you can click this and it will take to Google Maps where you can insert your current location and get directions straight to the venue.

Nutrition and Dietetic Health Improvement Team

Find out more about our nutrition agenda, who we work with and our main work strands:

• Nutrition and Dietetic Health Improvement Plan – 2018 – 2021

Find out more about the work our team has been involved in over the past year:

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

Below are some of the key local and national documents that give direction to our work:

A Scotland where everybody thrives – Public Health Scotland, Strategic Plan 2020 – 2023.
The Scottish Health Survey: 2019, main report, Scottish Government, Sept 2020.  Click here for the Summary Report.
A Healthier Future – Scotland’s Diet & Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, Scottish Government, 2018.
Scotland’s Public Health Priorities, Scottish Government, 2018.
Situation Report :The Scottish Diet: It needs to change :2018 Update, Food Standards Scotland.
Shaping the Future, NHS Forth Valley Healthcare Strategy 2016 -2021
A Thriving Forth Valley : NHS Forth Valley Health Improvement Strategy 2017 – 2021