The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-11150, in the name of Joan McAlpine, on meal makers tackle malnutrition in frail older people. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates the Food Train on what it considers its innovative new project, Meal Makers; understands that the project aims to tackle the problem of malnutrition among frail older people by encouraging people to cook and share an extra portion of their home-cooked food; further understands that the pilot for this project is taking place in Dundee but that it will soon be rolled out across the six local authority areas that the Food Train operates in, including Dumfries and Galloway, where the charity is headquartered; recognises that the cooks make initial contact through a social media platform and are then put in contact with a local older person who finds cooking difficult; acknowledges that malnutrition is a significant public health problem, negatively affecting physical health and social wellbeing and reducing the likelihood of independence; believes that this pioneering project will help overcome some of the social barriers that cause malnutrition, including limited transport to local shops, social isolation and poverty, and wishes the Food Train every success as the project develops.
12:34
I first came across the meal makers project when I attended the annual general meeting of the charity the Food Train in Dumfries this year. The meal makers project is funded by the Scottish Government and the Rank Foundation and delivered by the Food Train, and it is one of the best examples of a preventative care initiative that I have encountered in my time as an MSP.
The essential point of meal makers is that the cook makes an extra portion of what they would normally cook for dinner and delivers it to the diner’s home nearby. The project connects people in the same neighbourhood—it strengthens communities as well as helping individuals.
A great many people love to cook, but it is not much fun if they have nobody to appreciate the results. However, for every keen cook there is an individual who would love a hot meal but cannot manage to cook. Meal makers pairs them up, initially through a website that has profiles of cooks and diners that show their interests and tastes in food.
The project is very much in the spirit of its parent charity. I have always been a great admirer of the Food Train, and I am far from alone in that respect. The charity, which began in Dumfries and Galloway but has now been rolled out across Scotland, was founded on the very simple principle that many older people find it hard to shop, particularly if the local butcher, baker and greengrocer have closed and the nearest supermarket is accessible only by car.
The Food Train began by taking orders for shopping, which was delivered by volunteers who unpacked the orders and stayed for a chat, thus providing a point of contact for clients who were housebound and isolated. The idea for meal makers grew out of conversations that were struck up during those deliveries. Quite a few of the older people who ordered messages simply did not get around to cooking the food. The failure to cook is often a cause of malnutrition in the elderly, and meal makers addresses it very directly.
We could say that the project facilitates a natural human instinct, which is neighbourliness. When I was growing up, people looked out for and shopped for elderly housebound neighbours. They often handed in soup or baking, and occasionally they handed in a cooked meal. I remember my grandmother, who was widowed in her 50s, cooking for others well into her 70s. However, because of social mobility and perhaps a modern reticence, we often do not know our neighbours and we hesitate to offer help lest it is rejected. Conversely, those who could do with a bit of help can be too shy to ask for it. Meal makers overcomes that difficulty by using social media. Members can check out the project’s site, www.mealmakers.org.uk, or its very popular Facebook page.
Of course, many of those who would benefit from meal makers do not use the internet, so they are recruited in more traditional ways through general practitioners, district nurses and social workers, or through leafleting or posters in local shops. I give credit to the pupils of Harris academy in Dundee, who helped to make the pilot for meal makers there a great success by leafleting their local area.
Meal makers is a truly pan-Scotland project. It was piloted in Dundee but co-ordinated from a hub in Springburn in Glasgow. When I visited the hub and talked to staff members Emma, Stuart and Danielle—I believe that they are in the public gallery—I got an even clearer picture of meal makers and its beneficial effects. To begin with, meal makers cooks have to go through a basic food hygiene course and, for security, they are of course checked under the protecting vulnerable groups scheme. They are then linked up with a frail elderly person who is looking for someone to cook for them. The pair speak on the phone to make sure that they get on well and feel comfortable before going ahead with the arrangement. Some diners insist on plain food such as mince and tatties, so that is what they get; others are more adventurous and are linked with more experimental cooks. Quite often a friendship develops and the cook will stay for a chat.
In the Dundee pilot, a great many of the cooks are students who were keen to give something to the community by volunteering. It was really heartening to hear about cross-generational friendships being established through the simple act of cooking and delivering a meal. However, maybe we should not be surprised by that, because food is a way of socialising for all of us—it has been since the beginning of time, really. If we want to break ice, we break bread—that goes back several millennia.
There is of course a very serious benefit from meal makers, because illness, frailty and social isolation can cause malnutrition in some cases. On my visit to Springburn I heard some dreadful stories. One concerned a housebound, bereaved man who had existed on jam sandwiches until someone directed help his way.
It is now almost 10 years since the Scottish Government commissioned the recipe for life research project, which aimed to find better ways to support older people in Scotland to eat well. The research found that a number of social and psychological factors had an impact on dietary intake; in particular, it found that eating with others was an important way to ensure good nutrition, as was cooking for others. It also found that having a good-quality meal cooked by someone else encouraged frail elderly people to eat.
For a number of years, elderly people admitted to hospital across the United Kingdom have been screened for signs of malnutrition. One pan-UK research project that covered the four years to 2011 found that, on average, 29 per cent of elderly people admitted to hospital were malnourished. The figure varied by country: England had the highest level of malnourishment at 30 per cent, and Scotland had the lowest level at 24 per cent. It is good to be ahead, but I take little comfort from that one-in-four figure. That is why I applaud the meal makers project in particular, along with the other work that the Food Train does to feed those who, for complex health, psychological and social reasons, cannot feed themselves.
I wish the project well for its forthcoming official launch on 17 December and I look forward to it reaching cooks and diners in every corner of our country.
I call Dr Elaine Murray, to be followed by Dr Nanette Milne.
12:40
I congratulate Joan McAlpine on securing the debate. We have debated the work of the Food Train in the Parliament before and it is good to have another opportunity to highlight its work. The Food Train is a charity that supports older people. It started out in Dumfries and Galloway as a project after the Dumfries and Galloway elderly forum spoke to its members and identified the need for the project. It has now expanded its services to six local authority areas.
As Joan McAlpine said, the services that the Food Train provides include the delivery of groceries to older people who have difficulty in doing their grocery shopping. The Food Train extra provides help and support with a wide variety of household tasks and supports independent living. Food Train friends is a befriending service, with services that include trips out, home visits and phone calls. There is also an outreach library service, with volunteers dropping off and picking up books for people who are unable to use the library service due to poor health, disability, frailty or poor mobility.
The meal makers project is an expansion of that work. It is based on the casserole club, which seems to have taken off across the United Kingdom over the past couple of years. Thousands of volunteers across the country are now getting involved. As we heard, cooks who are preparing meals in their own homes volunteer to produce an extra portion for an older person in the community—the casserole club refers to such people as “diners”—who is less able to cook a good nutritional meal for themselves. It does not take any extra time or effort on the part of the cook, although many cooks will take the meal round to the diner and spend some time with them, or will invite the diner into their home to eat the meal. On the club’s website, there are many heartwarming stories of friendships developing between cooks and diners, to the advantage of both.
Many of us have cooked for larger families. My three children are all grown up and in their own homes and I know that it is difficult to scale down to cooking for two people or one person. What tends to happen is that additional portions are put in the freezer to be eaten later. My husband always says, “I’ll eat those when you’re in Parliament”, and then he tries to identify what they are. One time, he thought he was having chilli con carne but it turned out to be some sort of plum crumble, which I think he found somewhat disappointing.
Some things sit in the freezer and end up being thrown away. This Parliament has strongly supported Zero Waste Scotland’s love food hate waste campaign. About £1 billion-worth of food is thrown away every year. It is far better to share food with others who need and will appreciate a good meal.
As Joan McAlpine said, the project is not only about nutrition. In most cultures, the sharing of food is also a statement of caring and affection. We take pleasure in preparing food for people we care about. That is why it is often difficult for a person on their own, even if they are a good cook, to prepare a good meal. It is more difficult for them to be motivated, because we enjoy preparing food for other people. In my family, we argue about who cooks the Christmas dinner because the act of cooking a meal for the family is important to all of us. We all enjoy food cooked for us by family and friends. They do not have to be “Masterchef” contestants for us to really enjoy their meals. That side is important because, where friendships develop, the meal makers project provides not just physical nourishment but social nourishment and a feeling of caring, affection and being included, which is also important for mental health.
Meal makers is an excellent initiative and I, too, look forward to it being rolled out across Scotland in the future.
12:44
I, too, am grateful to Joan McAlpine for lodging her motion and bringing it to the chamber for debate. I noticed today that I am not a signatory to the motion, but that was an accidental omission, because I fully support what it says.
I confess that, until I prepared for the debate, I was not aware of the Food Train, but I was interested to learn of its history. As we know, it began in Dumfries in 1995 following a community survey of older people that found that many of them were struggling with their weekly grocery shopping. A partnership of local shops and volunteers was formed and, with their help, the Food Train began delivering fresh groceries to older people in need.
As we know, the scheme expanded across Dumfries and Galloway and into other parts of Scotland. The services offered include the Food Train, which is the shopping delivery service; the Food Train extra, which offers help with household chores; Food Train friends, which is a befriending service; and now meal makers, which is the subject of the debate.
Meal makers is a new project that is being piloted in Dundee, which is in my region. It encourages people to cook an extra portion that can be given to an isolated older person who lives in the same community. The aim of the project is to reduce food poverty, improve diets and break down the barriers that lead to loneliness. An online platform is used to connect volunteers with older people who might benefit from the initiative.
I pay tribute to the Scottish Government and the Rank Foundation for providing £60,000 of funding, and I recognise that the inspiration for the scheme came from the casserole club, which I believe originated in the south-east of England. The scheme should bring benefits beyond the nutritional goals that it strives to achieve.
I was a great fan of the WRVS meals on wheels service, which brought a hot meal to many elderly people living on their own once or twice a week, delivered and served by a volunteer. I do not know whether that service still exists, but it was greatly appreciated by its recipients.
Meals on wheels still exists, but there is a major problem. Because of cost restrictions, many local authorities are now giving out microwaveable frozen meals. Although those meals may provide similar nutrition for those who can work a microwave, the approach has the effect of increasing the social isolation that Joan McAlpine referred to. In my speech, I was going to ask the minister to take a firm look at the whole area, because this is not just about food.
You have had time enough for your intervention.
Dr Simpson has just stolen a chunk of my speech.
As I said, I was not sure whether the meals on wheels service still existed, for the very reasons that have just been articulated.
That ready-meal service was very welcome, because it was delivered personally, which brought many an elderly person the regular human contact that was missing from their lives. For some of them, that was the only time they saw someone from outside their home, and it relieved the monotony of a lonely and isolated existence. Although the replacement of hot meals by frozen meals that could be delivered several at a time saved money, it meant the loss of that human contact. To my mind, and as Dr Simpson said, that was a retrograde step.
I therefore think that meal makers will be a very welcome and valuable service for today’s increasing population of older people, who face the isolation of being housebound, often without any outside contact beyond the national health service. If it is successful, meal makers should contribute to overcoming the serious problem of malnutrition among our increasingly elderly population.
Meals on wheels benefited not only the recipient but the volunteer who delivered the meals. I had a friend who used to deliver for the WRVS, and she got immense pleasure from her conversations with her clients. I have no doubt that that will also be the case for those who get involved with meal makers. Indeed, I could see myself volunteering for it once I have more time on my hands.
I am sure that there must be many people who are like me, in that, when they cook, they prepare more than they need for one meal and freeze what is left over for another occasion. Just last weekend, I prepared a pork chop dish using 12 chops. The 10 left over after our meal are now in my freezer, in packs of two. It would require no effort, and very little expense, for a couple of those chops to go to someone who, because of frailty, cannot get to the shops and is no longer able to cook.
I imagine that the Dundee pilot will be a success, and I look forward to it being rolled out to the other local authority areas where the Food Train currently operates. If the pilot project proves itself, I would like it to be rolled out right across Scotland—I know several people in my own area who would almost certainly be interested in supporting it.
It occurs to me that such a scheme might be attractive to young volunteers. For example, much of the food that teenagers who are learning to cook at school is very appetising nowadays, and I imagine that a number of pupils would be interested in using their new-found skills to improve the diet and nutrition of older, housebound people in their neighbourhood. In turn, the pupils would get the benefit of personal contact with someone from an earlier generation, who could enlighten them about their lives, past and present.
I am quite excited to learn about the meal makers project and to see how it develops. I hope that Joan McAlpine will keep us informed about its progress. Once again, I thank her for raising the subject in Parliament.
I now call Sandra White, to be followed by Dr Richard Simpson.
12:49
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thought that you were perhaps going for a hat trick of doctors: Dr Simpson could have been next; and I am just plain Sandra White MSP. However, I am the convener of the cross-party group on older people, age and ageing, and this subject comes up pretty often at the group.
This morning I attended my first meeting as a member of the Equal Opportunities Committee, which has been considering discrepancies between the circumstances of older people and of other people in society. The subject of older men came up—and I will come back to that.
I congratulate Joan McAlpine on securing the debate. As she said in her motion, meal makers is an innovative project, and is welcome and important. It sets out to tackle malnutrition among frail and elderly people, which is a real concern.
We might find it hard to talk about or even recognise the issue, but many elderly people are isolated, particularly if they live on their own and have limited access to transport and social hubs. People lead busy lives, as Joan McAlpine said, and it can be difficult even for families to get out to visit their elderly relatives. It can be difficult for elderly people to get out of the house and engage with the world around them.
I commend the Food Train—there are people from the charity in the gallery—for recognising the problem of isolation among older people and setting up its service in 1995. The charity works with volunteers and local shops and is a real community hub. It started by delivering fresh groceries but went on to provide home support services. When I read about that, I thought that it was wonderful. It means that elderly people who cannot put up curtains or do other simple jobs can call on the service, which makes life a lot better for everyone concerned.
The Food Train is now enabling older people to enjoy healthy meals. As members said, meal makers is a pilot project, which will run for two years. Currently it is up and running in Dundee, and I hope that it can be rolled out across Scotland. Perhaps it can be incorporated into the existing projects that other groups provide in all our constituencies, if those groups have not been able to go the extra mile and do what meal makers does.
In my constituency, Glasgow Kelvin, many groups work with elderly people. For example, Glasgow Old People’s Welfare Association has been going for 66 years and runs fantastic projects. Perhaps meal makers could be incorporated into GOPWA, which would know how to go about it. I am not asking for a definitive answer on that from the minister, but I am sure that other groups would be interested in taking on the project.
Many older people who live on their own lose interest in cooking. When my mum lived on her own, making a meal for herself was the last thing that she wanted to do—she was used to cooking for a large family. Some older people are simply not able to make a meal, which takes me back to the subject that we were discussing in the Equal Opportunities Committee this morning. For some older men part of their culture has been that their wives cooked the meals, so they have never learned to cook. I remember that an elderly man phoned the Silver Line Helpline over Christmas. The person who took the call assumed that he was phoning because he was lonely, but in fact, after a big long explanation, he said that he wanted to know how to cook a chicken. Many older men have not been used to looking after themselves and miss out on good, nutritional meals.
I thank Joan McAlpine for securing the debate. I am pleased to have been able to speak in it. I look forward to meal makers being rolled out throughout Scotland.
12:53
I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate and I congratulate Joan McAlpine on securing chamber time for it.
I begin by correcting an omission from yesterday’s debate by welcoming the minister, Maureen Watt, to her new position. I hope that she will draw on her previous experience as a minister and use her influence to press the issues that Joan McAlpine has raised, in the context of developing social capital assets that seek inclusion of older people, because that is important.
Some 24 per cent of elderly people who are admitted to hospital are suffering from malnutrition. Although the position in Scotland is better than it is in the rest of the UK, as it is on so many things, the issue is a matter of continuing concern, as Joan McAlpine said.
According to a report that the Scottish Government published in December 2009, the nutrition that an older person requires is essentially the same as the nutrition that a younger person requires, but it is important that the older person’s diet is more micronutrient dense, to prevent the development of nutrient deficiencies, which can exacerbate health problems that arise in the aging process.
Unfortunately, it can become increasingly difficult for people to have a balanced and nutritional diet as they age. The Food Train seeks to address that problem through its programme—which I will not go into because Elaine Murray has covered it and we have had a debate on it previously. The meal makers project, which is based on the casserole club, which has been going in England for some time, is worthwhile and allows selfless community volunteers who enjoy cooking to assist their older neighbours. By all accounts, the project is already a success and is working well after two months of operation in Dundee. I gather that the Food Train intends to spread the meal makers project to other parts of Scotland in the near future—we have heard other details about parcel delivery and so on.
There are other examples of services that are being delivered throughout Scotland that work with vulnerable people to educate them about the preparation and cooking of healthy meals. In Mid Scotland and Fife, there is a great example of that in the Clackmannanshire healthier lives programme, whose work with vulnerable people has been transformational for some of the participants. In addition to that important service, the Clackmannanshire healthier lives programme provides a community food development worker who gives guidance and support to members of the community in relation to food, shopping, budgeting, cooking and general dietary advice. That sort of development of community spirit and community social assets is rewarding for all those who are engaged in it and helps the more vulnerable members of our communities.
In Stirling, a prepared meals at home service provides meals for people who have been referred on the basis of an assessment of need. The service is run by Apetito, which has had positive feedback from its clients since it began in 2012. There are many other examples of such services across the country, and it would be good to have a mapping exercise to indicate where they all are. The Government may already be working on that—we will hear from the minister in a minute.
In the short time that we have in a members’ business debate, it is not possible to cover all the issues. We should perhaps have a debate on nutrition. We are about to pass the Food (Scotland) Bill, an element of which is about improving the public diet. Obesity is one of the main public health challenges, but we must also improve nutrition.
I refer the minister to another example of social capital assets that is not unrelated. I have the good fortune to be the patron of Trellis, which is the umbrella organisation in Scotland for therapeutic gardening projects. There are now 180 such projects throughout the country that provide social inclusion, often for people with a learning disability or mental health problems. The projects involve working on allotments and producing food that is used to prepare meals. Connecting those projects in a better way would be helpful. I am glad that Trellis has just been awarded £5,000 to focus on training courses on supporting children with complex needs so that they can be introduced to therapeutic gardening.
I ran a seminar for Trellis in Fife, and Fife Council is now taking in hand the gardens of elderly people who are no longer able to manage them. Instead of the council carrying out basic repair work, the council gives the work—on a contract that it mediates—to people who want an allotment but cannot get one. They are now growing food that they share with the elderly people—that is the relevance to the current debate.
I hope that the Government will undertake a mapping exercise and provide time for a full debate on nutrition. I make one final recommendation to the minister: if she has the time over Christmas—I know that she will be very busy—she might like to read Sir John Elvidge’s paper “The Enabling State: A discussion paper”, which was produced under the aegis of the Carnegie Trust. It encompasses much that has been presented in the debate that Joan McAlpine has successfully secured today and that I am grateful to have been able to take part in.
12:59
I, too, thank Joan McAlpine for lodging the motion on meal makers and tackling malnutrition in frail older people, and I thank colleagues across the chamber for their participation in the debate. Following Dr Murray’s speech, food labelling has taken on a new significance. Proper food labelling has obviously not reached Dr Murray’s household, so I urge her, over Christmas, to buy some food labels that stick on to packaging in the freezer. That might help her husband to get the correct thing out.
I thank all members who have participated in the debate for the issues that they raised. Dr Nanette Milne said that the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service used to deliver meals and I remember doing that as a child with my mother, who did it for years and years.
Things have changed and moved on. As Dr Richard Simpson will know, it is local authorities’ decision to choose meals that are microwavable and it is up to local authorities to look at their priorities. I would agree with Dr Simpson that there is an opportunity in the integrated health and social care agenda, community planning partnerships and now, through empowering communities, to perhaps think about bringing this back.
Last evening, in the members’ restaurant in the Parliament, meals were prepared by school pupils, college students and others from Queen Margaret University Students Union. I wonder what happens to meals that are prepared in our colleges. Are they just eaten by the students? Might students want to deliver them to people who need them?
It is right for Parliament, through this debate, to congratulate the Food Train for spearheading meal makers, which is already delivering meals and creating community spirit in Dundee by encouraging people to cook and share a portion of their home-cooked food. I welcome the fact that the programme will soon be rolled out to six other local authority areas, as Joan McAlpine said. The Government is supporting the project with £100,000 for two years, to match the money that Joan McAlpine said that the Rank Foundation is putting in.
The meal makers programme is an enterprising initiative that will directly tackle undernourishment in older people. By linking up local communities, it will not just bring the immediate health benefits of a healthy meal and improved nutrition but will build relationships in local neighbourhoods.
As Dr Simpson and Dr Murray mentioned, the older people’s food task force was set up following a study trip to England by Scottish Government officials, Community Food and Health (Scotland), dieticians, academics and community workers, where those people became aware of the casserole club. In quick time, the task force made a valuable contribution to dealing with the issues of food poverty and food access. As a result, meal makers has been established and an eating well logic model has been developed as part of NHS Health Scotland’s work to create an older people’s outcomes framework. The task force has got ministerial backing to organise a malnutrition summit, which will take place next year. Perhaps after that it will be a good idea to have the debate on malnutrition that Dr Simpson mentioned.
The Scottish Government has a focus on improving health and inequalities. Meal makers aims to improve the health of older people who lack the money, skills or support to adequately provide for themselves. By focusing on homemade meals as the best option for eating in the home, meal makers follows the same principle as the Scottish Government’s new social marketing campaign, which is launching in January. The eat better, feel better campaign aims to improve cooking skills across the population, specifically targeting the more deprived areas of the country. The website will have 100 recipes that are simple and affordable, in order to encourage people to make homemade meals.
I congratulate the older people’s food task force and Michelle McCrindle, chief executive officer of the Food Train, who has played an active part in all that it has achieved.
Malnutrition is a significant public health problem, which negatively affects physical health and social wellbeing. Malnutrition and, in particular, undernutrition are important risk factors for older people becoming vulnerable and their independence becoming compromised. For some older people, a dinner from meal makers may be their only proper meal of the day. Around one in 10 people over 65 and living in the community are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. In recent years, malnutrition was found to affect 24 per cent of patients admitted to Scottish hospitals, with the proportion of people underweight rising steeply over the age of 70 years.
Malnourished older people will see their GPs twice as often as those who are well nourished. They also have three times the risk of hospital admission and their hospital stays will be longer. The direct costs of malnutrition are estimated to range from £5 billion for healthcare services to £13 billion for associated health and social care services. Therefore, reducing the number of underweight older people in the community could contribute substantially to reducing hospital admissions.
A wide range of factors has been identified by older people as preventing them from leading healthy lifestyles and has been linked to an increased risk of malnutrition: the affordability of food; difficulties in accessing food shops; decreased mobility; lack of cooking skills, which Sandra White mentioned; and the impact of major life changes and the loss of the motivation to eat well.
We recognise that particular groups of older people might be at risk of not eating well, such as older men, older people in remote communities, older people with dementia and older people from ethnic minority communities. That is why the Government supports initiatives such as the meal makers project and the Food Train in providing services for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.
However, older people are not solely recipients of services: in many cases, they are major providers of services, as Nanette Milne acknowledged. The input that older people provide as volunteers and the opportunities that volunteering provides for increased quality of life are hugely important.
The other initiative in the policy area is the Food Train, which I think Joan McAlpine spoke about in a previous debate. The Scottish Government has supported the Food Train for many years. It is a good example of older people contributing to society through third sector involvement. The service is currently active in seven local authority areas but the older people’s food task force has been considering how to gain support to expand the model.
I welcome the motion. The meal makers project will help to overcome some of the social barriers that cause malnutrition, including limited transport to local shops, social isolation and poverty. I wish the Food Train and meal makers every success as the project develops.
13:07 Meeting suspended.