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Eating

 

Brief Summary

St Paul's Youth Forum supports local communities to eat and eat-well in many ways.

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Our community food project Blackhill's Growing aims to provide a dignified approach to food insecurity and poverty through its veg barras, community farm and community larder, among other activities.

 

Mollie's Diner at the SPYF Molendinar Community Centre provides an affordable way for communities to socialise over food, for instance while enjoying a free soup, tea or coffee. 

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Food insecurity and food poverty are long-standing and ongoing issues in the UK, Scotland and Glasgow, with food bank use on the rise. Food banks sometimes don't meet people's need to eat healthy. 

 

Blackhill/Provanmill can be described as a 'food desert' as fresh food is difficult to come by; instead, ultra-processed foods are readily available. 

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Food plays a key part in physical and mental health, which is particularly important in the areas we work in as they are disproportionally affected by ill-health. Generally in Scotland, many health issues are present and not many people eat the recommended levels of fruits and vegetables.

 

It is therefore important to provide communities with alternatives that allow them to address food poverty, food insecurity and unhealthy eating habits in dignified ways. 

 

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Local Context​​​​​​​​​​

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  • North East Glasgow, North Glasgow and Blackhill/Provanmill have consistently ranked among the top 20% most deprived areas in Scotland. This includes poor scores on the health and income domain ranks (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, 2012, 2016, 2020).

  • For instance, the wider area of North East Glasgow scored lower than the Scottish average on almost all of the 59 indicators (Scottish Public Health Observatory, 2010). with more recent data confirming those trends (Public Health Scotland, 2022b).

  • Existing health issues may have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic that disproportionately affected areas of multiple Deprivation (Public Health Scotland, 2022a).

  • Deprived areas in the UK have an unfavourable distribution of food and other outlets, i.e. compared to less deprived areas, they have a higher density of gambling machines (Wardle et al., 2014) and tobacco and alcohol outlets (Shortt et al., 2015). In Glasgow, ‘obesity-promoting’ food environments appear more likely to cluster around schools in disadvantaged areas (Ellaway et al., 2012) and foods in poorer areas have previously been found to ‘have a tendency towards the ‘high-fat and high-sugar type’ (Cummins and Macintyre, 2002).

  • These findings mirror our own observations in local areas, which can be described as ‘food deserts’. In the areas we work in, access to fresh produce and health-supporting foods is limited, while it is relatively easy to access ultra-processed foods with very limited amounts of vitamins, minerals and fibres.

  • In Scotland, only about 1 in 5 meet the daily recommendation for the consumption of fruit and vegetables (Scottish Government, 2019).

  • The energy density of the average person’s diet has been estimated to be 40% over the Scottish Dietary Goal due to the high consumption of sugary and fatty foods (Food Standards Scotland, 2015b).

  • Those in the most deprived areas generally consume less fibre, fruit and vegetables and more sugar compared to the least deprived (Food Standards Scotland, 2015a).

  • The dietary profile of those living in Glasgow compared to the rest of Scotland appears to be even more unfavourable, with some but not all of it explainable by socio-economic factors (Gray and Leyland, 2009).

  • Again, this mirrors local observations which show that local communities appear to consume low amounts of fruits and vegetables and are more likely to consume foods of limited nutritional value.

  • Food aid is not always suitable for users. The quality of diet among food pantry users has been found to be low, with inadequate intakes of fruits, vegetables, diary products, and calcium, among other problems (Simmet et al., 2017).

  • In the UK, a high consumption of ultra-processed food is very common (Van Tulleken, 2023).

  • Generally, food insecurity is a persistent issue in the UK, with many people relying on foodbanks (Trussel Trust, 2024).

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Why we focus on eating

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  • The facts outlined above highlight the urgency address local issues with regards to food poverty, food insecurity, and food eating habits.

  • Providing a dignified and alternative approach to those experiencing food insecurity and food poverty plays a critical part to overcome some of the issues listed above.

  • Despite the low consumption of fruit and vegetables in the Scottish context, most Scottish people appear to perceive that the food they usually eat is fairly or very healthy (Food Standards Scotland, 2015b), showing a need to change dietary habits.

  • Food has critical relationships with non-communicable diseases (Scarborough et al., 2011; GBD, 2017; Micha et al., 2017), mental health (Myers,2020), and life expectancy (Shahid and Bishop, 2019), exemplifying the importance of nutritious food from a public and individual health perspective.

  • Food can also play critical roles in culture and social activities, addressing growing issues such as loneliness which have steadily increased over recent decades (Hertz, 2020) and may have recently increased with the Covid-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2023).

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References

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Scottish Charity: SC042570​

30 Langdale Street

G33 1Dl, Glasgow

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