School of Education

University of Glasgow / Food Train Partnership Project for 'Eat Well Age Well'

Who benefits from the research? 

The main beneficiaries of our partnership project are food insecure older adults themselves, in terms of drawing out the links between food insecurity and poorer psycho-social outcomes. However, the volunteers and University of Glasgow researchers, both benefit from their relationships with these older adults, and- where relevant- the project team in terms of their own empowerment, upskilling and intergenerational social contact. 

In terms of our knowledge exchange and impact activities, the beneficiaries were as follows: 

• Impact Event 1 - Lunch Club Events during Malnutrition Week: Our presence at lunch clubs and hosting our own afternoon tea days with Creative Stirling, allowed us to explore the impact of the food train service, and our own research, on key outcomes related to health and wellbeing for older persons. Sharing our findings with older adults themselves, and having a chance to socially eat together to the tunes of Shoogelele.   
• Impact Event 2 - Malnutrition Awareness Week
• Impact Event 3 - Outward Facing Workshop with diverse stakeholders: We hosted a one day workshop with diverse stakeholders- academic, government and health, as well as older adults and community groups, in an openly advertised Eventbrite to the public, held at The Smith Museum attended by approximately 50 participants across sectors.  The event was filmed and has contributed to the development of a short film, along with the afternoon tea above, to be shown at the final policy event. 
• Impact Event 4 - Parliamentary Event to launch Policy Brief: The above events have helped to cascade research findings directly to Food Train/EWAW, and their project stakeholders, but more widely within established networks & Scottish Government to inform and strengthen ongoing policy, service support and potential for onward expansion of Food Train services to areas not presently covered. Therefore, in order to ensure our mixed-methods evidence base continue to directly inform policy recommendations & build onward proposal for larger scale evaluation of the food train service, we have developed a series of policy papers, hosted on the Scottish Parliamentary website (particularly during COVID), and we have re-scheduled our parliamentary event, as an online event in the fall with MSPs, policy-makers, think tanks, academics and the third sector coming together to engaged with our partnership project report.