These sessions were aimed at families from areas of Glasgow where deprivation is at its highest.

We invited Joan McDonald, a Health Improvement Practitioner from the Gartnavel Royal Hospital so that she could pass our tips on to other groups. Joan is based in the North West Health Improvement Team (Child Team) within the NHS. Her main topic is oral health, but she also works in nutrition, providing information and cooking skills to families, nurseries and community groups in the North West of Glasgow.

Cooking is such an important skill and many of the parents we met lacked in confidence, or felt that financial pressures and a lack of knowledge prevented them from getting creative in the kitchen.
We needed to demonstrate that cooking from scratch saves you cash, so we delivered nutritional information and cookery tips with a focus on wasting less food.

All attendees were asked to complete a seven-day food waste diary prior to the workshop, which was returned to the trainer a week before. We explained that the diaries would be used to identify what they wasted as a whole, so that we could compare it with Scotland’s food waste statistics.
We’re all guilty of food waste and these groups were no different! They wasted significant amounts of bread, dairy, bakery items, meat, fruit, vegetables and leftovers. But they were keen to change.
We demonstrated which foods could be frozen instead of thrown out and we explained what ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ actually mean. We also highlighted the importance of planning ahead before hitting the shops and what ‘perfect portions’ really are. The sessions were designed to be fun, engaging and suitable for all abilities.

The groups now have the knowledge to plan, store and shop better – so they’ll save food and save the pennies too. And Joan can go on to share the classes with further groups.