Plan to get people eating healthily
A ‘food partnership’ is being developed in Walsall to encourage people to eat more healthily and address issues across the borough.
Health bosses said making good dietary choices affordable, easily obtainable and locally sourced was vital to creating a strong food system in the borough.
Worrying data showed just over 50 per cent of adults in Walsall were getting their ‘five-a-day’ fruit and veg while the picture was even bleaker for children with only 18 per cent of five to 15-year-olds getting theirs.
And health issues can become an issue with rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes remaining high in the borough.
A ‘food summit’ was held in the borough recently which saw a range of partners and organisations come together to discuss a plan on helping people make better choices with regards to food.
Dr Nadia Inglis, interim director of public health, said: “When we think about creating a good food system, we need to think about people, place and the planet.
“Supporting people to make good food choices, that are affordable is really important, but creating the right environment where the good choices are the easiest choices is critical to this, as well as thinking about how we can source food in sustainable ways, so we minimise our negative impact on the planet.”
A number of ideas emerged from their summit including drawing up a map of the work currently taking place across the borough and other initiatives such as community market days and encouraging the take up of existing services such as free school meals.
Dr Inglis said: “We will have a think about how we establish that food partnership and think about where the biggest gaps are and develop a more detailed food plan.
“It is building on what we have already got. We have a lot of good practice and we need to showcase that.
“We need a food plan. We know food can be a big driver or health and ill-health. We know dietary factors can be a consequence and cause of inequalities as well as, at the moment, people are struggling to be able to afford good food.
“The cost of food has gone up significantly. Over the past two years we’ve seen a 30 per cent rise in food prices but we also know a poor diet is one of the biggest preventable causes of ill health and second only to tobacco.”
But there are a number of other significant challenges that need to be overcome before they achieve their ultimate aim, not least affordability and the prevalence of fast food takeaways and convenience foods filling supermarket shelves.
Dr Inglis said: “The food environment has changed significantly over the last 20 years and seen a proliferation of convenience foods and takeaways and other venues.
“That focus on convenience can be attractive to people so we do have some hurdles to overcome in terms of changing some of that culture and make sure people can see the benefits of having fresh, healthy, hand-prepared food and minimising their consumption of processed foods.
“I don’t underestimate the scale of the challenge. We have lots of processed food marketed to us everyday and I think that is a big challenge.
“This is about a local movement and do believe you can make change locally if you get the right partners around the table all doing little things to change that culture.
“There is something how we lobby regionally and nationally as well as it is a national and international problem in how we create a healthy food system.”
