Making a Difference - Community Food and Health

Ian Shankland, from Lanarkshire Community Food and Health Partnership (LCFHP),
concluded with a presentation about how LCFHP activities are making a difference and
how they are working to demonstrate this to others.
Ian kicked off by mapping out how the availability of projects developed through LCFHP
are located throughout the whole of North Lanarkshire. These include:
food co-ops; fruit stalls (including NHS stalls); school and nursery schools (High Five for
Fruit); community cafés; cooking classes; growing projects; home deliveries and more.
Ian explained that currently LCFHP is asked to measure and collect information such as:
activity; size; turnover; cost benefit; surplus; number of customers and clients; and
ethnicity.
Posing the questions:
‘Do these indicators properly measure our outputs'
‘Can we prove that we are making a difference’
Ian proposed these measurements to improve our evidence that we are ‘making a
difference’:
• increases in knowledge and skills;
• behaviour changes; and
• changes in attitude and empowerment.
Ian concluded by suggesting ways we could be making more of a difference:
• closer partnership working between projects and areas;
• using outcomes/results to directly challenge funders' commitments; and
• closer integration between Third Sector and mainstream.
The speakers' presentations are available in full at www.commmunityfoodandhealth.org.uk