Grants to local authorities in Scotland 2006

Friday 9 March 2007

Grants totalling
120,000 were awarded to 12 Scottish local authorities by Food Standards Agency Scotland (FSAS) for 2006-07.

These grants were made to help develop new projects or add value to existing projects that are aimed at raising awareness of the essential messages underpinning the Agency's national Food Hygiene Campaign.

Summaries of the successful projects are given below.

City of Edinburgh Council

This proposal aimed to further develop the 'FOOD4LIFE' campaign from last year's hygiene grants. The campaigns aim was to raise awareness and promote food hygiene to young adults in Edinburgh. The target audience was identified as students and young adults living in areas of deprivation.

West Lothian Council

This proposal aimed to provide training and advice to the public and non-commercial operations as well as to vulnerable groups, volunteer workers and schools in the form of a DVD and supporting documentation focussed on food hygiene.

Dumfries and Galloway Council

This proposal aimed to raise awareness of the importance of hand washing throughout the day for all pre-school nursery and primary school children. In addition it helped spread the message of clean, safe and healthy food to all secondary students prior to them leaving home.

This campaign used the FOOD4LIFE booklet developed by Edinburgh Council previously as well as UV light boxes and hand washing units.

Renfrewshire Council

This proposal aimed to further develop the 'STAMP IT OUT' cinema advertisement so it could be used also by schools and community groups. The intention was to produce a 'Hands on Hygiene' learning kit incorporating the animation which could be hired out to nurseries, primary schools, secondary schools, adult day centres and voluntary/community groups.

The learning kit also included a hand washing experience for participants using a UV light box, glow lotion and soap. It also included demonstrations and educational information on how to correctly wash hands to avoid the problems associated when bacteria on hands results in contamination.

Renfrewshire Council's 'STAMP IT OUT' advertisement was one of four entries selected to receive a highly commended certificate as part of the FoodLINK Awards for Communicating Food Safety 2005.

North Lanarkshire Council

This proposal included two requests for funding.

Focus on Food – Development of previous initiative
Further development and training of six secondary and special school teachers to an intermediate level; training of 48 primary school teachers and food hygiene training for S3 and S4 pupils involved in hospitality courses.

'STAMP IT OUT' Cinema Advertisement
Further develop the 30 second cinema advertisement developed by Renfrewshire Council last year.

Scottish Borders Council

This proposal aimed to use Renfrewshire Council's 'STAMP IT OUT' cinema advertisement to raise the awareness of food hygiene and promote the 4 C's in Scottish Borders. Brochures were also distributed in support of these initiatives at a local level. The advert was aimed at children and parents attending the cinema over school holidays as well as vulnerable groups such as children in care, the elderly and adults with learning difficulties.

Dundee City

This project was a 'total approach' to food using training that puts a focus on food hygiene, Cooksafe, health and nutrition. Dundee City Council will work in partnership with the 'Cascade' project, which has trained over 3000 catering workers since the scheme began in 2002.

The levels of deprivation which exist in Dundee are second only to Glasgow and as such this campaign was made available to the entire community through volunteer workers and community groups with a focus on involving vulnerable and ethnic minority groups.

Angus Council

This proposal was to further develop the 'Keep it Clean' project for Angus Council. The funding was used to provide accredited REHIS food hygiene training to all secondary students and carers throughout Angus. The training would also cover infection control issues and be combined with the Food Safety Week initiative to provide UV light boxes to every out of school care club. The work raises awareness of food hygiene in addition to promoting nutrition and food safety.

West Dunbartonshire Council

This proposal introduced 4 new projects requiring funding over 12 months.

Project 1 – Target Audience: The Elderly
Working with Strategic Community Safety Partnership (Fire Service, Police, NHS) and assisting with the Elderly Experiential Learning Event to distribute food safety and hygiene information to carers and the elderly.

Project 2 – Target Audience: Low Income Families
Working with Knowetop Community Farm to promote food safety and hygiene using the 'Roots and Fruits' project as well as free REHIS course placements to low income parents.

Project 3 – Target Audience: Underprivileged Young People
Working with the Tullochan Trust Charity to promote 4C's to young people suffering from varying degrees of social and economic deprivation. The Trust's drop-in centre is very popular with approximately 60 people attending per week. WD Council aims to distribute food safety materials as well as run competitions to promote food hygiene as a whole.

Project 4 – Target Audience: Pre-Schoolers, nursery staff and parents
Working with the Council's Education Department to set up Health Information Points in nurseries and schools. These promote the 4C's as well as nutritional information and will also be used to distribute fridge/freezer magnets to parents.

North Ayrshire Council

This proposal provided the REHIS elementary food hygiene training to S2 students in North Ayrshire and offer Level 1 food hygiene training to Ethnic minorities in their native language. The training was aimed at those proprietors or the main food handler from catering businesses whose first language is Urdu, Punjabi, Mandarin or Cantonese. North Ayrshire Council tied this into Cooksafe and HACCP principles.

Glasgow City Council

This proposal staged a series of training sessions on food hygiene focussing on the 4C's. These sessions consisted of issuing advice and instructing practical kitchen demonstrations, whilst incorporating an element of nutritional guidance and was offered to approximately 200 ethnic food businesses throughout the community.

South Ayrshire Council

South Ayrshire's proposals consist of three projects:

Project 1 – Elementary Food Hygiene Training for Ethnic Businesses
This would be year 2 of a project to provide training to ethnic businesses in South Ayrshire in their native languages with an aim to ensure businesses meet the criteria for EatSafe.

Project 2 – Food Hygiene Training for Secondary Schools
This project was initially funded by an FSAS grant. The campaign was very successful and an evaluation report was submitted. The campaign involved training all S2 secondary students and those senior students taking Home Economics, ChildCare or Hospitality.

Project 3 – A Cinema Advert Campaign Increasing Food Hygiene Awareness This project would use the highly successful Renfrewshire cinema advertisement 'STAMP IT OUT'.