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The Physical Activity and Nutrition Networks for Walesquarterly newsletter for community food and physical activity initiatives in Wales Bitesize

March 2014 | Issue 42

Get Cooking with Cardiff Flying StartCardiff Flying Start have started the new year with four new Get Cooking courses. The courses are running throughout the city and are aimed at parents and carers living in Flying Start areas. The first ever Get Cooking course is up and running in one of the homeless hostels in Ely. The course aims to increase confidence in preparing tasty family meals on a budget.

As a new development, the Dietetics team have been working in partnership with the Flying Start Health Visiting team. They have trained seven Family Health Workers (FHWs) to become Get Cooking tutors.

The FHWs have undertaken the Community Food and Nutrition Skills Course (Agored Cymru accredited, Level 2) and additional Get Cooking facilitator workshops including a session to teach knife skills and provide tips and inspiration for cooking with families.

Two FHWs are already delivering their first courses.

A subgroup of Public Health Dietitians in Wales are working together to develop All-Wales standardised resources to support practical cookery courses in the community.

This is bringing together the work of Get Cooking and a project led by the Public Health Dietetic team in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board; Come and Cook/Dewch i Goginio. These are being produced as part of the NUTRITION SKILLS FOR LIFETM service.

The resources will be available to support courses delivered by trained staff in partnership with local Dietetic departments.

For more information contact the Cardiff and Vale Public Health Dietetics team on 029 2066 8089.

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Hot Physical Activity and Nutrition Local Initiatives

Risca Primary School young prize-winner visits Downing StreetAn artistic young Caerphilly county borough pupil has taken a trip to 10 Downing Street after winning outdoor play equipment for her school playground.

Four-year-old Cagla Kaya, a pupil at Risca Primary School, secured top spot in a national healthy living art competition, run as part of National Obesity Awareness Week 2014, with her healthy lunchbox design. In doing so Cagla won funds to carry out improvements to her school’s playground.

As part of her prize Cagla, who attends the school’s nursery class, visited 10 Downing Street on Tuesday 17 January 2014 for a reception hosted by the Prime Minister’s wife, Samantha Cameron.

Mrs Jayne Arthur, Headteacher at Risca Primary School, said: “We were delighted that Cagla had won such a prestigious award. We are all very proud of her. She had a fantastic day and we look forward to making some super changes to our playground.”

Cllr Rhianon Passmore, Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Education & Lifelong Learning, added: “I’m thrilled to hear that Cagla’s design has won this competition encouraging youngsters to have healthy, well balanced diets. It’s fantastic that her artwork has won improvements to the school’s playground, which will benefit the whole school community now and in the future.”

National Obesity Awareness Week ran from January 13-19 2014, encouraging the public to take action after reports that half of the UK population could be obese by the year 2050.

Cagla’s winning healthy lunchbox design

Cagla pictured with Samantha Cameron and other prize winners

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Lifestyle Management Programme goes from strength to strengthPatients across North Wales who have hip or knee osteoarthritis and have a BMI of over 35 are being referred on to the new Lifestyle Management Programme. The programme aims to help reduce their weight and their chances of needing hip or knee surgery in the future.

Betsi Cadwalader University Health Board and the National Exercise Referral Scheme are working in partnership to run the new initiative across the whole of North Wales within local Leisure Centres.

Anglesey County Council was one of the first councils involved in setting up the scheme and has been inundated with referrals for patients. Mair Eluned, Exercise Referral Co-ordinator for Anglesey County Council explained “By reducing patients weight and improving their knowledge on the importance of a healthy balanced diet and physical activity many patients are becoming fitter and stronger and are in less pain. Some patients have felt they no longer need surgery following completion of the scheme and others who still have some pain and require surgery are recovering quicker. Patients are also less likely to suffer post-operative complications in hospital due to their recent improvement in their lifestyle and physical fitness.”

“The Lifestyle Management Programme offers patients 32 weeks of structured exercise sessions with a qualified Exercise Referral Professional along with physiotherapy support throughout and an 8 week course with the dietitian.”

Einion Williams is one of Anglesey’s Lifestyle patients who not only successfully completed his 32 weeks, lost over 15kg, reduced his BMI from 50 to 45 but also completed his first ever Sprint Triathlon in Pwllheli and then in Llanrwst and also took part in the Cardiff Half Marathon. Einion is still exercising since completing the scheme to continue with his weight loss programme.

“The scheme has helped me improve my lifestyle and being able to exercise with people in a similar situation to myself made it easier to succeed. The support the staff gave me while I was exercising in the fitness room kept me motivated and this has helped me since completing the scheme to continue using the gym in my own time three times a week.”

Physiotherapist, Louise Cartner who is working on the scheme in Anglesey added: “The joint partnership working has been a huge success with patients benefiting from seeing a physiotherapist, dietitian and exercise professional all in one setting. The patients have found the sessions not only informative but also enjoyed being part of a group exercising together.”

For further information on the Lifestyle Management Programme in Anglesey contact Mair Eluned, Exercise Referral Co-ordinator on 01248 752975 or Cathy Wynne, Clinical Performance Lead on 01766 510038.

Einion Williams pictured

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Ziggies gets sportyZiggies, the free after school club for children and their parents, has launched new story time sessions to get kids up and moving.

The weekly Ziggies sessions are run in schools across Rhondda Cynon Taff (RCT) for children aged three to eight years old. Ziggies gives children the chance to share special time with their parents, experiencing the joys of stories together.

Now Ziggies has teamed up with Sport RCT to include ‘Play to Learn’ physical movement and play into their sessions. Ziggies still has reading at its heart, but after the story and craft activity children and parents now take part in fun activities based around the content of the book. In a recent Ziggies club the story of the Three Little Pigs was followed by a number of games such as ‘Piggy in the middle’ and ‘Roll the ball to knock the houses down.’

Based on the success of the initial pilot, the Ziggies team are currently developing three more Ziggies ‘Play to Learn’ sessions which will be trialed across existing groups for feedback from the volunteers and families.

Gemma Barker, Ziggies Co-ordinator said:

“Ziggies is such a special club because it is something that parents and grandparents can share with their children. The adults are hands-on with the craft and physical activities and children get to spend quality time with their parents. It is fantastic to begin working with Sport RCT to develop more sessions to get children active.”

To find out more about Ziggies contact RCT Homes on 01443 494660 and ask to speak to the Ziggies team.

Community Food Co-operative Programme

June Jones (North-West Wales) 01766 890637 / 07717 202215

Natalie Edwards (North-East Wales) 07772 109695

Karen Robertson (North-Central Wales) 07879 611670

Hannah James (South-Central Wales) 029 2023 2943 / 07717 205438

Richard Reast (South-West Wales) 01443 402317 / 07918 715718

Abigail Morrison (West Wales) 07875 224718

Rebecca May (South-East Wales) 07807 003039

The programme aims to increase people’s access to, and consumption of, fresh fruit and vegetables and to support local Welsh suppliers. The Rural Regeneration Unit manages the programme which is funded by the Welsh Government. The programme currently supports over 350 food co-ops across Wales. Further information about the Community Food Co-operative programme can be found on the website www.ruralregeneration.org.uk

If you would like further information on opening or finding a food co-op, please contact your local Food Development Worker:

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We are open! Latest Food Co-ops in Wrexham and FlintshireThe Rural Regeneration Unit would like to welcome a number of new food co-ops to the scheme. The latest food co-ops that have been set up in Wrexham and Flintshire are:

• Angorfa Food Co-op in Rhosymedre

• Alun School in Mold

• Madras V.A School in Penley

• Flintshire Local Voluntary Council in Mold

Volunteers at Flintshire Voluntary Council (FLVC) on their first bagging session

Claire Evans (lead volunteer) and Natalie Edwards Food Development Worker at the launch of Angorfa Food Co-op in Rhosymedre

A busy January for Newport Food Co-opsThis January has seen the launch of five new Community Food Co-operatives in Newport. Students at the Pupil Referral Unit have begun their food co-op which is running well and both staff and students are showing lots of enthusiasm. They are hoping to begin taking orders from the surrounding area once they are more established.

The Newport Centre has started a food co-op on a Friday morning. Customers can combine healthy eating with an active lifestyle by collecting their fruit, vegetable and salad bags on their way home from their swim, activity class or gym session.

Two Newport Council buildings have also opened new workplace food co-ops.

Duffryn High School is the first high school in the Newport area to launch a food co-op. If there are any other High Schools in the area who would like to start a food co-op, please contact Rebecca May, Rural Regeneration Unit Food Development Worker on 07807 003039.

St Marys School Food Co-op, OvertonPupils at St Marys School in Overton launched their school food co-op with much success! On their first day of trading £300 worth of orders were taken from parents and staff. Well done all!

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Ysgol John Bright Food Co-op, Llandudno

Ysgol John Bright Food Co-op in Llandudno celebrated its first birthday just before Christmas 2013. Karen Robertson from the Rural Regeneration Unit and Ysgol John Bright pupils took part in a focus group to share information about what is working well within the food co-op and to make suggestions for future development of the Community Food Co-operative Programme.

Students from Years 8, 9 and 10 have achieved consistently high orders of fresh produce and have taken part in activities over the year including hosting a visit from Ysgol Morfa Rhianedd pupils and a summer term trip to Belmont Farm which supplies their food co-op.

Following the focus group pupils were awarded with ‘Outstanding Contribution’ certificates.

‘More Nosh, Less Dosh’ have launched their food co-op at the Antenatal clinic in Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr.

Open to all mums-to-be and mums with young children, the food co-op runs every Monday afternoon between 2-4pm.

‘More Nosh, Less Dosh’ Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr Food Co-op

L:R Suzanne Hardacre, Senior Midwife, Birth Centre, Jackie George, Lead Midwife, Birth Centre, Christine Bovington, Lead Midwife, Antenatal Clinic, Steph Williams – Volunteer, Becky Newton – new customer and mum-to-be.

Latest Food Co-ops in GwyneddLook out for two new co-ops in early February in Gwynedd. Ysgol Craig y Deryn in Llanegryn will be starting their food co-op on 3 February 2014 and Meithrinfa Menai in Parc Menai in Bangor will be starting on the 13 February 2014. All the best to both co-ops!

A lovely afternoon was had at Plas Pawb in Maesincla, Caernarfon at the end of January in a Fun Day arranged by Flying Start with a chance for the toddlers to plant

bulbs, get creative with colouring and making masks. We had a chance to talk to parents about the food co-op they run and take orders for the following week.

Anyone interested in ordering through Plas Pawb co-op can contact June Jones, Rural Regeneration Unit Food Development Worker on 01766 890637 and via june.jones@rru.org.uk or Wenna Williams, Family Support Officer for Flying Start in Plas Pawb on 01286 662634.

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Trecynon Food Co-opIn Cwmbach, the first Cooperative Society shop in Wales was established in 1860 on Bridge Road. Now over 150 years later a fruit and vegetable co-operative has been established at Trecynon Hall, Aberdare.

Gareth Jones one of the trustees of Trecynon Community Hall has worked tirelessly to ensure that the building is still serving the community over a hundred years since it was built. Gareth contacted Richard Reast, Rural Regeneration Unit Food Development Worker in order to help set up a community food co-operative scheme.

Gareth said:

“I contacted Richard because I wanted to improve access in our community to healthy food at an affordable price, the food co-op is completely in line with the principles of the hall in that it is open to all and run on a not-for-profit basis. We hope that by starting a food co-op in the hall we will engage with new members of the community who may not have used the hall before. The co-op will be run from the café, which has a lovely atmosphere and sells a range of affordable tasty food and drinks. It is the only café still in Trecynon so it is a great hub for the community here.”

The food co-op will run every Friday from 11.30am-2.30pm. All orders are taken and paid for in advance but orders can be taken up until noon on Wednesday in the café. Fruit, vegetable, stew pack and stir-fry bags are available all at £3 each. The café is open Tuesday to Friday 9.30am–3pm and 10am-2pm on Saturdays.

The running of the food co-op is entirely dependent on volunteers. In addition to Gareth Jones; Neil and Anne

Roberts, Brenda Danter, Ceinwen Davies, Ray Scofield and Gareth’s wife Morfydd all volunteer to help run the Food Co-op.

Rhondda Cynon Taff’s Mayor Ann Crimmings was in attendance at the launch. Ann was born and raised in Trecynon and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Community Food Co-operatives across the county.

She said:

“It is so important for people to have access to affordable fresh produce especially in times like these when household budgets are being stretched. Food co-ops can introduce families to new fruit and vegetables they may not have tried before and are a great example of the public working together to take control of their food supply.”

If you would like more information on this Food Co-operative please contact Richard Reast on 01443 402317 or visit www.foodcoopswales.org.uk

L:R Neil Roberts, Mayor Anne Crimmings, Brenda Danter, Gareth Jones, Morfydd Jones and Ceinwen Davies

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Notice board

Are you up for a challenge?Do you want to walk around the earth? The distance of the entire Wales Coast Path? Or just be a little bit more active each day?

Let’s Walk Cymru, Ramblers Cymru and Change4Life Wales are helping people to set up their own walking challenges to get everyone in Wales to their feet.

Whether on your own, or as part of a team, the Wales Pedometer Challenge encourages people to count their steps each day and see how far they can walk in a bid to get Wales more active.

The challenge opened on the 20 January 2014 and is running up to the Big Welsh Walk in May. Caerphilly County Borough Council have taken the challenge head on setting up a league for a 6 week workplace challenge, 34 teams have already signed up to see who can step the most. Could your office or school work (and walk) together to challenge Caerphilly? To register visit www.walespedometerchallenge.org.uk

Angela Charlton, Director of Ramblers Cymru, said: “We are all committed to getting the people of Wales walking and we thought the Wales Pedometer Challenge would be a fun way to encourage people to get started, as well as a great way to challenge regular walkers.

People don’t need to go out on long walks to take part, they can just add extra steps into their daily routine like going window shopping at lunch time, which will help them to get moving and improve their fitness.”

“We see it as being a great way for people to get their friends, family and colleagues involved too – they can challenge them to take part and compete against

them in a bid to see who can complete the most steps. Alternatively they could team up and work together to complete challenges.”

“People can log their steps on the website so they can track their progress. We are encouraging everyone taking part to set themselves or their teams targets on the website, for example they could aim to walk the 14 miles of the Cardiff Half Marathon, 144 miles of the Wales three peaks, 870 miles of the Wales Coast Path or even the 24,907 miles around the earth. Once an individual or teams have completed the challenge they set themselves, they will be notified and automatically move onto the next challenge.”

“We hope that by our Big Welsh Walk, which takes place throughout May, everyone who took part in the Pedometer Challenge will be ready to join us on one of our Big Welsh walks. If they’ve walked the distance of the Wales Coast Path they will certainly be ready to take a walk with us.”

To sign up for the Wales Pedometer Challenge, which takes place from 20 January 2014 until 5 May 2014, visit www.walespedometerchallenge.org.uk

If you are interested in setting up your own league contact letswalkcymru@ramblers.org.uk

Follow us:

twitter.com/letswalkcymru

twitter.com/RamblersCymru

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Future Diets PublicationThe Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has produced ‘Future Diets’ which traces how the changes in diet - more fat, more meat, more sugar and bigger portions - have led to a looming health crisis. It also looks at how policy-makers have tried to curb our eating excesses, with mixed results.

Interesting figures from this publication include:

• One in three adults in the world (1.46 billion) were overweight or obese in 2008, up by 23% since 1980.

• More adults were overweight or obese in developing countries than in rich countries in 2008.

• North Africa and the Middle East, and Latin America now have almost the same percentage of overweight or obese people as Europe.

• In the developing world, the number of overweight or obese adults more than tripled from 250 m. in 1980 to 904 m. in 2008.

• An indicator of changing diets is the increasing consumption of sugar and sweeteners, which has risen by over 20% per person between 1961 and 2009.

• South Koreans ate 300% more fruit and 10% more vegetables in 2009 compared to 1980 because of concerted government-led campaigns.

The publication is available to download from www.odi.org.uk/future-diets

Resources

The UK Faculty of Public Health has published resources on a range of issues connected to food, the environment, transport and obesity, demonstrating the importance of an integrated approach to improving people’s health.

The evidenced-based position and briefing statements address physical activity, food marketing to children, obesity, sugar and transport and health. The statements give an overview of key public health issues and make recommendations for action to tackle the issues.

The statements are available on the UK’s Faculty of Public Health website www.fph.org.uk

UK Faculty of Public Health Statements

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Events

Public Health Wales is responsible for producing and distributing the Bitesize newsletter but has outsourced the distribution of the Newsletter to RMG: Research and Marketing Group. If you are not happy for your contact details to be passed on to Research and Marketing Limited for the distribution of the Bitesize newsletter please contact Public Health Wales at 14 Cathedral Road, Cardiff, CF11 9LJ or telephone 029 2022 7744. MARCH 2014 © Crown Copyright

About UsBitesize is the hard copy newsletter of the Physical Activity and Nutrition Networks for Wales aimed at community food and physical activity initiatives.

Please send your contributions for future issues of Bitesize to Rebecca Winslade at Public Health Wales, Hadyn Ellis Building, Maindy Road, Cathays, Cardiff, Wales, CF24 4HQ or email rebecca.winslade@wales.nhs.uk

The deadline for submissions for the next issue is 1 May 2014.

The website www.physicalactivityandnutritionwales.org.uk contains a wide range of information about nutrition and physical activity in Wales. Visit the website to register as a member of the Networks.

An advisory board guides and oversees the work of the Physical Activity and Nutrition Networks for Wales. If you would like to input or feedback into the work of the Networks please contact 029 21 841941 or visit the About Us section of the Physical Activity and Nutrition Networks Wales website.

13-14 Promoting Health Behaviour Change, Loughborough Universitywww.bhfactive.org.uk/resources-and-publications-item/357/index.html

17 Adult Food Allergy Workshop, The Royal Society, Londonwww.food.gov.uk/news-updates/news/2014/jan/adult-food-allergy-workshop

19 Playwork: Principles into Practice (P3) Level 3 Engagement Event, Cardiff Bay Creative Centre, Cardiffwww.playwales.org.uk/eng/events/125

20 Playwork: Principles into Practice (P3) Level 3 Engagement Event, The Interchange, Old Colwyn www.playwales.org.uk/eng/events/126

27 Using the Functional Fitness MOT with Older people, Newport Leisure, Newport www.bhfactive.org.uk/older-adults-training-and-events-item/370/index.html

March 20146 Cultivating Planning Conference, Bristol http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=2713

15 3rd Ability Sport and Active Lifestyle Conference 2014 (ASAAL), Reading www.asaal.org.uk/conference

15-16 Promoting Health Behaviour Change, Loughborough University www.bhfactive.org.uk/resources-and-publications-item/357/index.html

20 3rd Ability Sport and Active Lifestyle Conference 2014 (ASAAL), Nottingham www.asaal.org.uk/conference

May 2014

2-4 International Conference Movement and Health 2014, Czech Republic www.mandh.upol.cz

2-6 Healthy Eating Week 2014, UK Wide www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/index.aspx

14 Fitness Wales Fitness Spectacular, Welsh Institute of Sport, Cardiff www.fitnesswales.co.uk

June 2014

14 -16 Fourth High-Level Meeting on Transport, Health and Environment, Paris www.unece.org/thepep/en/hlm/hl4_info.html

April 2014