Feel Good Food
Food Champion application: Improving community diet and nutrition
‘‘Feel Good Food’’ (FGF) is a self sustaining, healthy food box scheme designed to promote healthy eating, improve food preparation skills and promote independent living.
The same multi agency team (based in Bath and North East Somerset) who produced ‘‘Fit to Eat’’, a project promoting a healthier lifestyle and food hygiene for people with a learning disability (LD) worked together to develop this project.
We carried out a food diary survey with local clients – 16 food diaries were analysed - 2 people ate 3 portions of fruit/veg per day, 5 ate 2 portions per day (all of these individuals had supported living). 9 individuals ate 1 or 0 pieces fruit/veg per day.
These diaries also highlighted individuals who were skipping meals and repetition – 1 individual was eating the same food every day and 1 ate cheese for every meal other than breakfast.
Valuing People Now, the Government’s three-year strategy for people with learning disabilities sets out a range of commitments to improve health and healthcare for people with learning disabilities. Valuing People Now is based on the four key principles of: rights, independent living, control, inclusion - The FGF project directly impacts on all of these key areas. The FSA have prioritised “making healthier eating choices for all”.
The project is based around Connections Day Services, Radstock - situated in an area which falls within the most deprived quintile in Bath and NE Somerset using the whole Index of Multiple Deprivation (2004). As expected, the area also fell within the most deprived quintile locally according to health and disability scores and thus targeting of resources and services into this area is seen as a priority.
The newly refreshed LAA, completed in March 2010, identifies communities of interest in the B&NES area as including those with LD and seeks to narrow the gap in health inequality.
This project directly contributes to the Vision for Bath and NE Somerset in terms of particular elements (below) - The Vision is for Bath and NE Somerset to be a distinctive place that has:
- connectivity,
- that are active, lively and inclusive,
- where people feel safe, take responsibility and make a contribution,
- where the disadvantaged are supported where the vulnerable are protected and
- where everyone fulfils their potential by having an equal opportunity to learn and develop skills, enjoy a healthy lifestyle, contribute to the economy and society.
Likewise the engagement of local business has increased links with the local business community.
Aims and Objectives
The earlier form of the FGF project had been running for a number of years in Bath and NE Somerset (B&NES), at the Connections Day Centre, with some degree of success but the fact that it only related to vegetarian food was felt to be restrictive. This project planned to build on past work carried out with people with Learning Disabilities – See Food Vision “Fit to Eat” and www.Fittoeat.co.uk.
The main aim was to increase the opportunities for vulnerable individuals and groups to prepare and cook healthy and safe food for themselves through completely reviewing the current project and: .
- To trial/re-launch with Learning Disability groups and individuals throughout the area and promoted across the former Avon as a model.
- To create a template box scheme for work with other vulnerable groups such as older people, young care leavers, students etc to promote the use of healthy recipes and fresh ingredients together with food safety messages from ‘Fit to Eat’.
- To make the project self sustaining for the future
Partners
Key partners on the steering group included:
- Client Group, Connections
- Connections Day Services staff
- Lifeskills, Learning for Living
- Radstock Co-operative Society
- Paul Loader (local butcher)
- Food Standards Agency
- Bath and North East Somerset Primary Care Trust: an occupational therapist and a health promotion specialist.
- Public Protection Service – B&NES Council – Health Development and Trading Standards.
- Supported Living Service
- Carrswood Day Centre
- National Autistic Society
- Keynsham Day Services
Methodology
We followed the philosophy that made the Fit to Eat project so successful. We took a person centred approach of consulting directly with the service users. We ran a series of 10 weekly workshops and staff from Connections Day Services and steering group members all joined in the facilitation of the workshops to make sure they were recorded and accessible. Service users told us what their favourite meals were and had the chance to taste test and trial a number of new healthy dishes. A new logo was chosen through the workshop process.
The most popular meal choices were selected for analysis and from this all recipes were traffic -light marked ‘red’, ‘amber’ or ‘green’ according to the amounts of sugar, fat and salt they contained. The design of the recipe cards was updated to include photo models holding the finished dish.
Clients, as before, were very keen to be involved in the preparation and packing side of getting bags ready. The workshops had created a lot of interest amongst service users and staff were oversubscribed with people keen to be involved with shopping, preparing and packing. The new recipes and boxes were piloted on several rotations and feedback from service users and support workers collected and collated.
The project has now gone live across B&NES and has 67 weekly customers at present.
Promotion
The project has been self promoting to a degree as there has been a very strong interest in Feel Good Food since the launch at the Guildhall in Bath in 2008. At that time local Councillors and the Chair of the Council were invited to and attended the launch.
The project was launched across the former Avon area with a launch at Lifeskills – Learning for Living in Bristol. The website has enabled us to spread the word nationally and once the model packs are created other areas will be able to see at first hand the practical nature of the project.
The FGF project worker has also done 8 presentations and displays between June 2009 and January 2010. FGF customers and project workers took part in presentations. These have been to a variety of health care professionals and service users.
There is a standard FGF leaflet produced in a visual and accessible style available as a hard copy or pdf for general information as well as the website.
A photostory shows a day in the life of packing Feel Good Food bags and portrays the activities and many clients currently involved in the preparation and production side of the project.
Resources
The Food Standards Agency contributed £10,000.00 to the project. Steering group members gave their time and expertise to the project as an “in-kind “ contribution. Funding was also received from the B&NES Health Development budget.
The majority of the expenditure was on the design and production of the recipe cards and the new logo, purchasing the cool boxes, sampling and analysis of recipes, DVD creation etc. Further expenses incurred include food to begin the project Radstock Co-operative Society supply the food at cost price and provided the chiller bags and blocks at cost price.
Funding from the Radstock Co-operative and the FSA was secured in April 2009 to develop the Feel Good Food website. With this funding we were able to design and go live with the website in October 2009.
The website contains information about all aspects of the project and reflects the accessible and visually eye catching style of the recipe cards. The creation of the boxes is now self- sustaining in the B&NES area.
The PCT funded additional time for the project worker to enable local development and expansion and funded the Evaluation by Bath University. In addition, they are supporting the delivery of the information sessions for parents and carers to help embed the project. We have just linked in with local students from Bath Spa University to help support this educational aspect.
April 2010 - NHS BANES PCT have confirmed funding for project support worker for a further two years.
Evaluation
A formal evaluation was carried out by the University of Bath – completed in October 2008. A link to this document can be found below. [see below - Feel Good Food Evaluation 2009]
In terms of continuously seeking to improve the project we have piloted the complete recipe range for a number of rotations in order to gather the best information about improving the box contents to meet the needs of our consumers.
Similarly we have delayed final production of the model pack in order to be able to provide the best information possible.
The project has led to a new initiative in B&NES – Food Factor. The Trading Standards team have transferred their expertise from FGF to participating in this school meals related project.
Feel Good Food is a very successful project now (April 2010) delivering 67 healthy eating boxes a week to local residents in B&NES with Learning Disabilities (LD). New clients are being signed up on a regular basis. Key achievements include the involvement of clients with LD in shopping and box preparation, Employment of two people with LD as part of a work experience scheme through B&NES Community Day Services, a website to help spread the word and training sessions for parents and carers to support their knowledge and skills.
As at March 2010 we currently have 67 weekly customers. Six are due to join from the Supported Living Service in Bath, six more from a supported living project in Trowbridge in Wiltshire and then 20 from our jointly managed sister day service in Bath. This would bring our number up to approximately 79 customers. Our target deadline was 50 customers by April 2010.
Lessons Learned
As always, delivery of projects with client involvement presents challenges with timescales, organisation, and lack of predictability but in truth that is the reward. The professional officers supporting the workshops would not have predicted the choices made by the clients for favourite recipes, design and layout of the recipe cards, safety messages etc.
The steering group have proved invaluable – not only with professional support and advice but in spreading the word about the project in their various organisations. In addition they are able to spread the word to different professions – an article in the professional journal - Occupational Therapy Times on the earlier Fit to Eat project is soon to be followed up with one on FGF.
There is never enough time so the key is prioritise and deal with the essential issues first – the local success of the project diverted resources from the creation of the packs however we have re-scheduled those deadlines keeping the project on track with a longer timescale.
Rolling out the concept to other groups such as the school meals service in Food Factor has been possible because of the engagement of our colleagues, in this case Trading Standards, who continue to spread the word!
Future Developments
Since April 2009 there has been a one day a week (now two days) placement for a person with learning difficulties with the FGF team arranged through the Community Day Services Team and from April 2010, a second placement beginning one afternoon a week with scope to expand the hours.Several clients work on the bag preparation and packing. This is organised on a rota system for clients as it is so popular.
Within the scope of Connections Day services there is potential for a new project growing vegetables and soft fruits and herbs on site. This project could supply the FGF kitchen with supplies for bags. Already we have received input from Community Service Volunteers who rotavated the patch of land and local firms have donated materials.
In 2010 we will be commencing in house food hygiene training for all clients who work as part of the FGF team, packing and preparing the FGF bags.
We plan to expand the recipe selection as we had a few left over from the original workshops and we have had a few suggestions from customers.
We are going to make a new short DVD approx 5 minutes long to accompany the photostory to show the complete process/cycle of shopping for, preparing and making up a bag through to it returning and being cleaned out ready for use again. We plan to include footage from the training course to show how to cook the FGF meal.
We found a lack of confidence in support workers to support clients to cook the FGF meals because of their own inadequate cooking skills so new workshops are planned for parents and carers.
The model boxes/package for use in other areas will be ready for Autumn 2010.
Contact Details
Contact Name: Sue Green
Job Title: Acting Service Manager – Public Protection
Phone: 01225 477562
Email: Sue_green@bathnes.gov.uk
Website: Feel Good Food
Organisation: Bath and NE Somerset Council
Address: 9-10 Bath St, Bath BA1 1SN
Other Resources:
- Feel Good Food - food factor summary
- Feel good food evaluation
- Feel Good Food - 2009 Bath University Evaluation Report
To open the Bath University evaluation above, click and save it to your files, and go to http://www.7-zip.org/download.html to download software which will unzip the document.
This case study was added 21 April 2010