Eating Better
The Skills and Climate Friendly Diets Working Group met in February and went over their Action Plan actions. They discussed:
- Support for Grow, Cook, Eat – which was launched in October 2022 with funding in place until the end of 2025.
- Food Leaders programme – this will also be run with older people and there is NHS funding to build an e-learning programme to open it up to more people with a food insecurity focus.
- Healthy Start vouchers – Bristol City Council signed an open letter asking for Healthy Start to match inflation, which it now does. The vouchers are now on a card that looks like a credit card and are accepted in more places, but there is still work to be done to have them accepted in greengrocers and similar shops. Children’s Kitchen will advertise the vouchers through their early years work, and Feeding Bristol will also advertise that people can use their cards through the FOOD Clubs.
- The Bristol Healthy Schools Award programme – this supports schools to take a whole school approach to health and wellbeing. As a result of teacher feedback and curriculum updates, they have recently adjusted and softened some of the criteria in the Essential Award, which is the first step of the award programme. After this schools can progress to the Specialist Awards, where schools can focus on specific topic areas, such as the Food Environment or Mental Health and Wellbeing. They offer all schools an online ‘Introduction to the Essential Award’ session. Find out more and book a session at healthy.schools@bristol.gov.uk.
The Bristol Good Food 2030 Framework is almost ready – feedback is coming in and updates are being made. The Framework is on track to be published in May with a public launch in June.
