Community Food Initiatives North East (CFINE), an Aberdeen-based charity and social enterprise is announcing its newest ventures, the Best Start and Smile Project and the CFINE Community Food Pantry. A formal launch event at the CFINE premises will mark the start of the initiatives on Monday, October 07.
Lesley DeJager, CFINE chairperson; Jonathan Iloya, director of Dentistry for NHS Grampian; Councillor Lesley Dunbar, Aberdeen City Council Councillor, CFINE Board Member and Granite City Good Food Chairperson will open the event and Kevin Stewart, MSP, Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning will cut the ribbon. The event is consciously held on the Challenge Poverty Week, taking place between October 7-13.
The ultimate goals of CFINE are holistically alleviating poverty and providing support for those in need. The new initiatives build on the success of the Woodside Pantry, Scotland’s first of its kind pantry-style food scheme and provide an identical service for other communities in Aberdeen.
The Best Start and Smile Project involves the operation of the Best Start and Smile Pantry (BSSP), which aims to allay the pressure on food insecure parents to provide healthy food for their children by offering a family-oriented shopping experience on a membership basis, at a fixed weekly token price.
The members of the Best Start and Smile Pantry will have an additional opportunity to receive information and access to oral health education and advice, as well as free adults’ and children’s toothbrushes and toothpaste.
The BSSP is recruiting women and young families from Aberdeen, Torry, who are pregnant or have one or more pre-school age children. The Best Start and Smile Project will permanently open its doors on designated days of the week for its members later in 2019. It is a Scottish Government funded project, delivered working in partnership with the Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Grampian.
Those members who are entitled to Healthy Start vouchers/Best Start food cards will be able to redeem those at the BSSP, with added value.
The CFINE Community Pantry will operate alternately alongside the Best Start and Smile Pantry at the same venue, maximising the positive impact in the community. The CFINE Community Pantry will function as a dignified option for the beneficiaries of CFINE’s food bank and the charity’s volunteers.
The recruitment for members has begun in August. The initial thirty members of the CFINE Community Food Pantry will be selected through a draw on Tuesday, October 01, 2019, ensuring equality in chances. The pantry will permanently open in the second half of October. The CFINE Community Food Pantry is an Aberdeen City Council funded initiative.
Lesley DeJager, CFINE Chairperson said:
“We are delighted to introduce Scotland’s latest pantry-style food schemes to Aberdeen. Partners of the pantry projects believe, while food banks address an immediate need, they are not helpful in the long term as they create dependency and erode dignity.
“CFINE hopes to provide a dignified alternative to food banks for local communities by making fresh and healthy food affordable and available through the Best Start and Smile Pantry and the CFINE Community Food Pantry.
Kevin Stewart, MSP, Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning said:
“It was a pleasure to help launch these new projects that will mean even greater support for children and families in Aberdeen.
“I’ve seen first-hand the crucial work CFINE does and these initiatives will help families provide healthy food for their children and improve oral health across the city.
“I would encourage everyone and anyone to donate to CFINE or volunteer to see the fantastic work CFINE does.”
Councillor Lesley Dunbar, Aberdeen City Council Councillor, CFINE Board Member and Granite City Good Food Chairperson said:
“As the first pantry has been such a success in Woodside helping people access low-cost and nutritious food, it is great a second pantry is opening in another community in Aberdeen.
“The additional opportunity to get information and access to oral health education and advice is very helpful, and addressing poor child dental health has been identified as a priority issue by Torry Locality Partnership.”
Jonathan Iloya, director of Dentistry for NHS Grampian said:
“NHS Grampian is delighted that CFINE has been successful in securing a grant from the Scottish Government Oral Health Community Challenge Fund for a project aimed at increasing access to a healthy diet and improving the oral health of young families in the Torry area.
“Children in Torry have relatively poorer oral health compared to their peers in more affluent areas of Aberdeen. An unhealthy diet rich in sugar and fat is detrimental to the health and wellbeing of our children and is contributory to poor oral health.
“We believe that the Torry community will benefit from the proposed range of activities aimed at developing good oral health practices and providing access to a healthy nutritious diet.”
The members of the Best Start and Smile Pantry and the CFINE Community Food Pantry can purchase 10 items, including high quality, nutritious food items - for example, meat and fish- as well as dry goods and other household items at the weekly cost of £2.50. The estimated value of the 10 items is £20, which is a generous ‘top-up’ to the pantry-user individuals’ weekly shopping.
FareShare Grampian, the local regional centre of FareShare UK that CFINE operates, will provide good quality, in-date surplus food for the pantries, that would otherwise go to waste.
