Making a Difference - Community Food and Health

Experience
The grocery delivery service is kept simple – customers make up shopping lists,
volunteers collect it, shops make up orders, volunteers then deliver, unpack and collect
money. The home-service support, also known as Food Train EXTRA, provides social
contact and befriending, support with home safety, and a variety of household tasks such
as tending gardens, keeping house, small repairs etc., which may not be covered by
current personal care packages.
This unique partnership of local volunteers, local grocery retailers and a wide variety of
community partners allows the Food Train to make over 15,000 grocery deliveries each
year, provide over 1,000 home support visits and collectively provide 4,000 hours of social
contact every year to between 500 and 600 older people living in Dumfries and Galloway.
Listening to customers and their needs has shown that a successful service needs to:
• be prepared;
• sell itself differently;
• listen to those in need - be their voice; and
• be patient.
National Priorities
Crucial to the Food Train’s operations is the awareness and understanding of local,
regional and national priorities and outcomes for health improvement and older people. In
Scotland national policy documents have made reference to healthy ageing: “We will live,
longer healthier lives” Scottish Government, national outcome 6 describes what the
government want to achieve; “Reduce proportion of people aged 65 and over admitted as
emergency inpatients two or more times per year” and “Increase the % of people aged 65
and over with high levels of acre needs who are cared for at home” Scottish Government
national indicators that enable government to track progress on achieving outcomes.
The ‘Independent Review of Free Personal and Nursing Care in Scotland’ the Lord
Sutherland report, published in April 2008, states that “ there should be specific reference
to securing the wellbeing of older people included within the Scottish Government’s 15
National outcomes set out in its National Performance Framework “ 2 . The Food Train
believes that older people have not figured prominently on political or funding radars in the
past. Current priorities do lend themselves to the work of the Food Train but could be more
specific to an older population.
Making a difference
There is a lot at stake if the population of Scotland is to age successfully:
• improved quality of life: better food access promoting greater independence;
• promoting good health with support;
• improved partnership working at all levels across all sectors;
• benefits for social/health care systems and budgets;
• community ownership, value and pride benefitting community.
It is important that the roles older people engage in are recognised: carers, employees,
volunteers, consumers, investors and learners. Support and services should enable
people’s lives through choice and dignity, and current standard practices need to change.
2 ‘Independent Review of Free Personal and Nursing Care in Scotland’ a report by Lord Sutherland, April
2008 www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/04/25105036/3