£1.2 million funding boost for Food Train scheme tackling malnutrition among older people

A project aimed at tackling malnutrition among older people in Scotland has received a £1.2 million funding boost.

The Food Train charity’s Eat Well, Age Well scheme plans to create a network to test ways of helping older people eat well and avoid malnutrition which affects one in 10 of their peers across Scotland.

The charity, which delivers meals to hundreds of meals each week to older people across the country, heard from their older volunteers who talked fondly of the meals and foods they used to love and share, but how age, frailty and an increasingly inaccessible care system affected their ability to eat as they wished.

East Well, Age Well will involve health care workers, voluntary groups, local and national government and the private sector working together to trial ways to address older people’s eating habits, working alongside the London-based Malnutrition Task Force.

The latest funding comes from the National Lottery’s Big Lottery Fund.

Food Train chief executive Michelle Carruthers said she was “delighted” with the funding.

She said: “Through the Eat Well, Age Well project, we will work towards a sustainable approach to reduce malnutrition among older people living at home and create a long-lasting and engaged network across the country committed to this issue.”

Public health minister Aileen Campbell said: “Food Train has great experience of working with food, health and older people, and is well-placed to take this forward.”

She said the government will consult on a new diet and obesity strategy in the autumn, which will consider how to support everyone to access enough of the right food.

Big Lottery Fund Scotland chair Maureen McGinn said: “This award, made possible by National Lottery players, will bring together partners in the public, third and private sectors to help tackle malnutrition amongst older people in our communities.”