Fork Our Nutrition and Dietetic Health Improvement 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

Nutrition in the News

New research into Food Poverty and Food Insecurity in the UK

A three-year study, focusing on more than 1,000 food-bank users across the UK was commissioned by the Trussell Trust, and conducted by Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University.

State of Hunger research found that people who have been referred to a food bank:

have an average weekly income after housing costs of just £50.
cannot afford to buy the absolute essentials that we all need to eat, stay warm and dry, and keep clean – with 94% facing real destitution.
are very likely to have health issues – with nearly 75% reporting at least one health issue
Over the last five years, the number of emergency food parcels provided to people in crisis by food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network has increased by 73%.

Read the report – State of Hunger – A study of poverty and food insecurity in the UK, November 2019

Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods – Help for Low Income Families

The Best Start Grant is a new Scottish benefit to help parents and carers on low incomes with the costs of looking after children.
Best Start Grant has three one – off cash payments that can be applied for:

The Pregnancy and Baby Payment
The Early Learning Payment
The School Age Payment

Find out if you’re eligible and for further information visit Best Start Grant.

Best Start Grant – Flyer
Best Start Grant – Q and A Sheet
To apply complete the Application Form or apply online or if you’d prefer to apply by phone, you can call 0800 182 2222.

Best Start Foods

Best Start Foods – Q and A Sheet
Best Start Foods – Flyer
To apply complete the Application Form or apply online or if you’d prefer to apply by phone, you can call 0800 182 2222.

Best Start Foods is a new payment that will replace UK Government’s Healthy Start Vouchers in Scotland. The new payment will replace the paper vouchers with a new payment card, giving you more flexibility in how you use it.

Best Start Foods is paid to help you buy healthy foods for you and your baby. These foods are:

Milk – plain cow’s milk and first infant formula
Fruit and Vegetables – fresh, frozen or tinned fruit or vegetables (those with added sugar and salt are excluded)
Pulses – fresh, frozen, tinned or dried pulses like lentils, beans, peas and barley.
Fresh eggs

These foods are also listed on the back of the Best Start Foods card.
The Best Start Foods card is a Mastercard and can be used in a similar way to a normal bank card using contactless or Chip & Pin. It can be used in supermarkets and local shops that sell the healthy foods listed on the cards and takes bank card payments.

You can apply for Best Start Foods if you live in Scotland and get certain benefits or tax credits and are pregnant or the parent or carer of a child. Find out if you are eligible and for further information visit Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods.

You can apply online or if you’d prefer to apply by phone, you can call 0800 182 2222.

Forth Valley Recovery Community

A pioneering app and website has been launched to help people affected by substance use in the Stirling and Clackmannanshire areas. The Forth Valley Recovers App and website offers important information to individuals, directing them to local and national support and encouraging engagement with services. The app has a range of interactive features and will help users understand the impact of drugs and/or alcohol on their health and its effects on others. It has details of where individuals and families can get free cooked meals, access local food banks and details of local Recovery Cafe’s and their opening hours.
Visit the website for further information and to download the App:

Forth Valley Recovers Website

Looking for food safety information for a community event your running?

This new guidance, produced by Food Standards Scotland, is intended for those having a charity or community event such as a street party, a school fair or fundraiser barbeque and is not intended for registered food businesses. When preparing and providing food it is important that you consider all the food safety implications of that event to keep everyone as safe as you can.

Food Safety – Community and Charity Events

New Choose To Lose – Practitioner Pack now available!!

Community Dietitians from the NHS Forth Valley Nutrition & Dietetic Weight Management and Health Improvement Team are delighted to announce the launch of their new Choose To Lose – Let’s talk about weight – Practitioners Pack.

This pack has been developed to support healthcare professionals to raise the issue of weight in a positive and consistent manner and with consideration to the words they use to encourage and support people to make positive lifestyle changes.

Starting a short conversation of around 2 to 3 minutes about weight can support a person to start thinking about making their own lifestyle changes. Everyone in direct contact with the general public has an opportunity to raise awareness, motivate and signpost people to help them manage and maintain a healthier weight and improve their overall health and wellbeing. It’s useful for practitioners to use the opportunity at follow up appointments to review weight change progress with their patients.

This pack offers suggestions on how to link weight to a person’s existing medical condition – it provides prompts, conversation starters, practical advice and signposts individuals to useful weight management resources and local services.

Visit Choose To Lose website for further information and practical advice on losing weight.
Let’s talk about weight – Practitioners Pack

Food Activity Grant Scheme

Our Health Improvement Team are pleased to open this years grant scheme. Grants ranging from £50 for short term pieces of work and up to £400 for larger projects will be available to apply for.
These grants aim to support local food activities and initiatives across Forth Valley.