Council’s “Food Group” wins public sector award

Assist fm award 17 may 2022
Neil Beattie, Team Leader – Catering and Cleaning (left), with Victor Nicoara, Cleansing Supervisor, at the event in Glasgow on Tuesday evening.

Shetland Islands Council has won an award for its collaboration to provide food to those in need in the community. 

Awards were presented in Glasgow earlier this week, at the annual conference of Assist Facilities Management (FM) – the association that covers the provision of school meals, catering, cleaning and janitorial services within Scotland’s 32 Councils.  

Shetland Islands Council’s “Food Group” won the award for “Outstanding Collaboration and Local Authority Innovation” for the work by several Council services and local agencies to source and distribute food to families on low incomes.  Support for families to cook healthy meals and to encourage local growing projects has also been a key part of the work. 

The Food Group includes representatives of Council Services including: Social Work, Schools’ Catering and Cleaning, Criminal Justice, Youth Services and the Anchor Early Intervention Project.  

The Food Group originated in local plans for the prospect of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit, with the Council coordinating meetings to ensure no shortages of basic food supplies in the Shetland community.  At that time, the charity FairShare was also providing food supplies to Shetland, redistributed from the food industry to community groups.  

Local relationships built during this time continued during the pandemic, to coordinate Scottish Government grant funding, and to deliver shielding parcels using local suppliers. 

It became clear that the partnerships formed for community food provision had longer term benefits, to find funds to purchase food supplies, and to store and deliver food in the community to those in need.  “Food Larders” were set up in some schools, to make food accessible to vulnerable families supported by Social Work and the Anchor Project. 

This success led to a wider distribution network to provide food to more locations, with a peak in 2021 of around 80 families and over 150 children supported during the pandemic. This support has continued and the Anchor Team now also sources second-hand clothing for families who need this. 

Work is also underway to establish after-school “Food Clubs” for young people and parents to learn about healthy eating and cooking within a budget. 

Helen Budge, Director – Children’s Services, said: “I’m delighted that the Council’s efforts for this project have been recognised with this Assist FM award.  We’ve provided food and other forms of support to many families and individuals who have needed help during the pandemic and that will continue wherever necessary. The collaborative teamwork by our staff and other local partners has made this possible.  The Food Group is working on how to keep this project going in future, coming up with innovative solutions for local issues.”  

Published: 19th May 2022