Royal Greenwich awarded top spot in Good Food for London awards
The Royal Borough of Greenwich has been awarded the top spot in the ‘Good Food for London’ league table for demonstrating leadership on healthy and sustainable food.
At an awards ceremony at City Hall on Friday 13th October, the Royal Borough of Greenwich were recognised for their innovative work around the food agenda, securing top of the ‘Good Food for London’ league table, ahead of last year’s winners, the London Borough of Islington.
The ceremony celebrated the launch of the ‘Good Food in London’ report, which measures the progress on how the boroughs make London’s food system healthier and more sustainable, and the ‘Beyond the Foodbank’ report, which highlights the different areas that public health is involved in to help reduce food poverty. The Greenwich Food Poverty Needs Assessment has been highlighted as an example of good practice in understanding food poverty within local boroughs, with Greenwich also being awarded a top 3 spot for this report, for their dedication, innovation and leadership in tackling food poverty.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich has consistently been recognised for their work to make Greenwich a good food borough and help their residents eat healthily, as well as being an accredited Living Wage employer, a Fairtrade Borough and a member of Sustainable Food Cities.
Greenwich has many local organisations and businesses signed up to the Healthier Catering Commitment, making it easier for residents to choose healthier options when eating out, and are taking steps to sign the Local Government Declaration on Sugar Reduction and Healthier Food.
Greenwich is successfully improving food culture within schools, with 8 schools in the borough signed up to Food for Life, meaning great work is being done to provide healthy school meals, fun lunchtimes and food education that has a positive impact on both pupils and the community. 62 schools have registered with the Healthy Schools London scheme, (sponsored by the Mayor of London), which recognises and celebrates when schools are making a difference for their pupils and helping them to make healthy choices. Out of these 62, 27 have achieved the bronze award, 15 have achieved the silver and 4 have achieved gold. Finally, within schools, gold Food for Life meals are served in the majority of schools and other sectors within the borough, serving sustainable fish, cage-free eggs and higher welfare chicken, dairy and pork.
Their workaround breastfeeding has meant Greenwich has achieved a full UNICEF UK Baby Friendly accreditation across maternity, health visiting and all Children’s Centres, ensuring that breastfeeding mothers always have a safe and comfortable place to breastfeed their children.
For more information about the fantastic work that Greenwich is doing to improve the health of residents around food, healthy eating, breastfeeding and schools, and to get involved visit www.goodfoodingreenwich.org and www.livewellgreenwich.org.uk.
For more information contact:
Claire Bennett – Senior Public Health Manager (Food and Health)
Claire.bennett@royalgreenwichgov.uk
Healthier Catering Commitment
The Healthier Catering Commitment (HCC) is a voluntary scheme for food businesses developed by the Association of London Environmental Health Managers and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and supported by Greater London Authority, Mayor of London office.
The Good Food in Greenwich network supports the development of a local healthy and sustainable food environment, and the HCC scheme comes under this initiative.
The scheme is designed to support fast food or café businesses, to help them make simple and affordable changes to the food they sell, to make it healthier for you.
https://gcda.coop/the-healthier-catering-commitment-scheme/
Food for Life
The Food for Life programme is about making good food the easy choice for everyone – making healthy, tasty and sustainable meals the norm for all to enjoy, reconnecting people with where their food comes from, teaching them how it’s grown and cooked, and championing the importance of well-sourced ingredients.
http://www.foodforlife.org.uk
Healthy Schools London
Healthy Schools London is an Awards Programme that will reach out to every London child, working with schools to improve children and young people’s well-being.
http://www.healthyschools.london.gov.uk/
Greenwich Breastfeeding Friendly
http://www.greenwichbreastfeeding.com/
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