Eating Well for Less
Support for families to eat well and make healthy choices on a budget
The Healthy Families: Right from the Start Programme, also known as the HENRY Programme, has the strongest evidence-base of any national early years child obesity prevention programme in the UK. HENRY provide training for staff to become facilitators of the programme, NHS Shetland coordinated this training for NHS and Shetland Islands Council staff. Locally these trained facilitators deliver the programme on a one-to-one and group basis alongside standalone workshops. One of these is the Eat Well for Less workshop which provides parents with the opportunity to:
- Understand what it means to eat well by exploring the Eatwell Guide
- Increase knowledge about shopping habits and eating in a healthy, balanced way
- Plan meals and recognise cost effective options
- Make the most of food purchased
- Understand the cost of different cooking methods
- Increase confidence to access resources on HENRY website and other sources of information
In 2022, HENRY updated the Eat Well for Less workshop in line with cost of living evidence. Parents rated their confidence higher as a result of the workshop; and were also planning to use their freezer and other appliances to be more energy efficient and reduce food waste. Considering the sensitive nature of the topic, and previous feedback from parents, the workshop was also offered as an online session. Partners plan to further explore with families the potential barriers and enablers to joining workshops, to ensure stigma is not a reason for lack of engagement. Comments on the knowledge gained by parents include:
“You can freeze ANYTHING and how to reduce costs with cooking”
“What’s more energy efficient in kitchen appliances”
“You can make any meal balanced”
Eating Well for Less aligns with the ‘Money’ and ‘People’ priorities of Shetland’s Partnership Plan. The programme should help ensure that more children are fed nutritious meals that are budget friendly. Through the programme, parents are empowered to address the issues they face; and are supported to minimise outgoings.