EVERY pupil in Glasgow should be taught how to cook a pot of vegetable soup by the age of 12, public health experts have suggested.
Fruit and vegetables should also be grown in Glasgow’s 90 parks and on the city’s streets while more restaurants should be encouraged to share unwanted food.
The strategies form part of an ambitious 10-year plan, modelled on others launched in London, Bristol and Cardiff, which aims to ensure everyone has access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food, “irrespective of where they live, their income or personal circumstances”.
The statistics in Scotland’s largest city are stark.
One in three children is living in poverty while a fifth of primary one children are either overweight or obese.
Almost 80 per cent of people in the city reported eating fewer than five pieces of fruit and vegetables every day while 12% consume none at all.
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The action plan, which is being launched today, was put together over two years and involved 80 different sector experts including Glasgow’s Director for Public Health, Dr Linda de Caestecker and Glasgow Community Food Network.
“Food not only nourishes us, but it also bring families and communities together.”
It includes 76 short and longer term objectives which aim to improve health and reduce food poverty.
There should be an increase in the provision of “affordable” farmers’ markets and moves to end the dominance of larger firms in public sector catering contracts, with greater numbers of smaller contracts awarded and more given to independent firms.
A “cash first” principle should be promoted to remove the reliance on foodbanks, where families are given money to buy groceries, which anti-poverty experts say results in “greater choice, dignity and less need for food”.
Another short-term objective states that pupils should be assessed on healthy eating skills with one suggestion put forward that every child should be able to make a pot of vegetable soup by the age of 12 using seasonal vegetables.
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Celebrity chef and school meals campaigner Jamie Oliver delivered an award-winning TED talk in 2014 in Huntington in West Virginia, which had earned the dubious title of the most obese town in the United States.
He showed a clip of some young students mis-identifying cauliflower as broccoli, turnips and onions, and said food education in the young was key to reversing the town’s health record.
He also called for food ambassadors in supermarkets to help families shop and introduced healthier and less expensive school meals.
The Glasgow plan calls for every school to be partnered with a food growing initiative in the city and healthy street food initiatives launched outside secondaries to reduce the uptake of high street junk food.
The amount of land allocated for food growing projects in the city should also be significantly increased according to the plan.
Glasgow already has three market gardens, 90 community gardens and 32 allotment sites.
The plan has identified that there are an additional 925 vacant or derelict sites which could be used for growing.
Fruit trees and vegetables patches could also be incorporated into the city’s parks and streets.
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Dr Linda de Caestecker, Director of Public Health at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “A healthy diet is vital for good health and wellbeing but for too many in Glasgow, food poverty is a real issue which cannot be ignored.
“No-one should be going hungry in our city.
“But more than that, we need to make healthy food more affordable and accessible for the whole population, which is what makes this plan so important.
“Food not only nourishes us, but it also bring families and communities together.”
Abi Mordin, chair of the Glasgow Food Policy Partnership (GFPP) said: “We’ve tried to make sure that the 76 joined up actions will pave the way for Glasgow to be a city where good, healthy, ecologically produced food is affordable and accessible for all”.
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