Community Health and Well Being

Health Inequalities Officer

Overall aim: To support and enable all Island households to eat a healthier, sustainable diet within the means available to them and to support local producers to increase local markets for fresh, affordable healthy food.
♦ Deliver support programme to Healthy Schools: auditing practice and assist in the development of school food policies for schools working towards the Enhanced Healthy Schools status, commission training to support this process, be part of the Healthy Schools Quality Assurance & Steering Group and to take part in moderating selected schools achieving the Enhanced Healthy Schools status
♦ Deliver programme of training and support to Childrens Services aligned to and to enhance the Community Chef programme.

The first wave of this training will be from September 2009 and for staff, volunteers, managers and trustees of organisations and settings providing services to children 1-5 years old and their parents. The training will be based upon the CWT training materials for children under 5 years in childcare and updated in the light of Foresight and Change 4 Life. Please contact us for more information
Tailored support to any organisation or service for 0-19 year old to develop their food and health policy as part of the Be Healthy Outcome.
"The Chair of the Food Standards Agency has warned that for the first time in more than a century, life expectancy may fall, with the real prospect that parents may outlive their children." ‘Official: fat epidemic will cut life expectancy', The Observer, 9 November 2003.

♦ Co-ordinate and facilitate the IW Healthy Eating Alliance, and be part of the Healthy Weight Action Group to feed forward findings and opinions from the IWHEA
♦ Project manage and develop the Community Chef Service

Shrewd food logo showing food spelt with two tomatoes instead of O O


 

 

 

Food Mapping on the Isle of Wight

Food mapping is used to determine the issues faced by communities when trying to access
healthy diets, develop practical solutions and understand better what communities know and find acceptable in regard to food related health messages.
What is available in terms of healthy food provision and at what cost in shops and cafes locally.
The process of discovery included finding out from local residents their views on food provision, verifying these findings and volunteers carrying out shopping basket surveys to find out what a "healthy" basket cost and if it was available in various localities.
In order to find out the real issues faced by Islanders in accessing healthy diets; the Isle of Wight Rural Community Council commissioned research from Food Matters, a not-for-profit company, who support individuals and organisations working towards more sustainable, equitable food systems. The research was part of an Isle of Wight Primary Care Trust project.
Poor nutrition and obesity are strongly linked to heart disease, and understanding the availability of available food is a key part of finding solutions.

The findings included:

  • Generally healthy foods were considered more expensive.
  • Car usage made shopping choice much wider and easier.
  • Recognition that cooking from scratch required time, effort and skills; these can be
  • very significant barriers. Many people who lived alone lacked motivation to cook.
  • There is much confusion about labelling schemes adopted by different stores
  • and some people were completely unaware of them.
  • Many people knew what made up a healthy diet, but didn't eat well, more work is needed to understand what motivates healthier changes.
  • Education is seen as key to changing behaviours and improvements to school meals are crucial in this.
  • The report will be disseminated over the coming months and opportunities sought
  • to implement the recommendations with partners.


Wise Up Your Food Choices
The other part of this project delivered cookery demonstrations and supermarket safaris, in partnership with Co-op stores, in many areas of the Island. The "top tips" learned from this part of the programme were:

  • Fresh, frozen, dried, canned and juice fruit and vegetables all count towards your 5 or more a day. Try to eat a variety of seasonal fruit and vegetables.
  • Choose wholemeal varieties of bread and pasta, together with brown rice. Foods higher in fibre are better for you and help to fill you up.
  •  Base your meals on these sort of starchy foods - potatoes and sweet
  • potatoes are good too.
  • Don't go without cakes and pastries altogether, but choose tea cakes,
  • English muffins, and fruit breads, these are generally lower in fats and sugar,
  • again wholemeal varieties are best.
  • Food labels can be confusing but look at the total amount of fat in foods, how much of the fat is saturated fat and how much salt or sugar it contains. Use the traffic light guide to make a healthier choice by picking foods with more greens and ambers and fewer reds.
  • Aim for at least two portions of fish a week, including a portion of oily fish. Salmon, mackerel, trout, herring, fresh tuna, sardines and pilchards are all oily fish.
  • Cut down your salt intake, use herbs and spices as an alternative flavouring to salt and check food labels: high level of salt is more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium) and low is 0.3g salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium)
  • Cut away visible fat from meat, and choose lean cuts. Grill or bake to avoid adding extra fat.
  • Try to eat the following foods in small amounts and less frequently: meat pies, sausages, meat with visible white fat, hard cheese, butter and lard pastry, cakes and biscuits, cream, soured cream and crème fraîche, coconut oil, coconut cream or palm oil.
  • Watch for so-called "hidden sugars" in food and drink, such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, hydrolysed starch and invert sugar, corn syrup and honey, if these are near the top of the ingredient list - it means that the product is high in that ingredient. They can be high in calories, and can lead to tooth decay.
  • Drink 6-8 glasses of water or other fluids every day, more in warm weather, to stop getting
  • dehydrated. Avoid soft or fizzy drinks that are high in added sugar.

In order to support funding received to co-ordinate the IWHEA, the co-ordinator can take on almost any role in the food and health field as a consultant and can offer the following skills and experience:
Sara Ellis has nearly 20 years experience of working in voluntary sector organisations on the Isle of Wight, and Gloucestershire in homelessness, housing, advice work, health inequalities and food and health. Her roles have included working with homeless single people in all age groups, housing management, and project development. A key interest in that time has been research, whilst working in housing she completed several housing aspiration reports on young people living in Cheltenham and the first housing assessment on accommodation for sex offenders for Stonham Housing Association. In addition, she compiled the Shriek Guide for women facing homelessness on the Isle of Wight.
Since 2000 Sara has worked at the Isle of Wight Rural Community Council as facilitator of the IW Healthy Eating Alliance. The Healthy Eating Alliance is a large, active and vibrant network of individuals with a professional or personal interest in food and health issues. In 2006, the IWHEA received the Caroline Walker Trust Award for a community group making an outstanding contribution to improving public health through good food. Sara has led lobbying and campaigning related to food and health issues both locally and nationally. Sara represents the voluntary and community sector and parents as a member of the Isle of Wight Healthy Weight Action Group, which is the partnership body guiding local obesity policy and commissioning of services.
Sara develops and manages the Community Chef Service, publishing a Cooking with the Chefs recipe book for children in 2008.
During her time working with the Alliance, Sara has developed considerable expertise and knowledge in the field of food and health and links with a network of regional and national contacts working in associated fields. She is qualified to Diploma level (with credit) in Public Health Nutrition in the Community, and able to directly deliver training programmes in her field of interest.
Sara has extensive experience of partnership working, bid development, research and consultancy associated with food and health and obesity. She has a particular interest in food poverty and diet-related health inequalities.
Sara has a proven track record in achieving outcomes through partnership working with local businesses, the voluntary and community sector and statutory sector. Sara has undertaken a number of consultancy projects with the statutory sector, including:
• Joint co-ordination and delivery of the Big Lottery Community education programme for 5 A DAY locally with the IWPCT
• Support programme to Healthy Schools to include, audit, policy development and consultation for the Healthy Eating Theme with individual schools. Together with a role in quality assurance and moderation.
• Bespoke training on food policy development for Childminders
• Large scale consultation with stakeholders on school meals locally, with recommendations to inform the initial spend of Standards Fund Grant 5a
• Evaluation of Executive Chef Mentoring Programme, aimed at improving the quality and presentation of school meals
• Shopping basket and dietary intake recall surveys.
• Development and piloting of successful Community Weight loss programme using NICE guidance.
Sara's work with local businesses has resulted in the establishment of the Isle of Wight Healthy Eating Alliance Awards, run over four years thanks to full sponsorship by local food related businesses. This event has also been supported by the Department of Food Policy at City University. Another partnership with a local business led to the establishment of an Isle of Wight Children's Food Festival in 2008.

Sara has a strong set of community engagement skills, working with children, young people and adults. The use of Participatory Appraisal and Illuminative Research ensures that all taking part feel included and that views are taken on-board The success of this approach is evidenced through her work to develop and sustain the Healthy Eating Alliance and her ongoing programme of commissioned work in consultation and evaluation. She is passionate but realistic in achieving better outcomes through improved health for all.She is vice chair of the governors at a primary school, with leading roles in Health and Wellbeing, Quality Assurance and Achievement and Standards, a trustee of the IW Law Centre and an Ambassador for the School Food Trust.