The British Red Cross ‘longest year’ report includes recommendations for governments and local authorities across the UK on mitigating the effects of lockdown restrictions. The recommendations cover resources to support mental wellbeing, financial security and addressing barriers to accessing support. The report is available on the Red Cross website.
Covid-19 information and resources
New report from the British Red Cross
CFHS blog – online cooking skills courses: tips and ideas from REHIS
Since March last year, The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) has allowed REHIS course presenters to deliver the REHIS Elementary Cooking Skills course virtually, using platforms such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Adapting training to a virtual platform is not without its challenges, so REHIS recently developed some additional guidance for its course …
On-line cooking sessions -Tips and ideas from Edinburgh Community Food and Greener Kirkcaldy
Edinburgh Community Food (ECF) and Greener Kirkcaldy, both usually run regular face-to-face cooking courses. They now deliver these online and gave us some tips and ideas based on what they have learnt. What approaches are they taking? Greener Kirkcaldy’s initial focus last year was to provide easy-to-follow recipes by providing cooking demos on their YouTube …
February Covid-19 e-bulletin
Our latest Covid-19 e-bulletin is now available, giving you information on how Community Food Initiatives are coping with the current lockdown and planning for recovery, including putting more activities online. Plus the latest webinars and reports. You can read the e-bulletin here.
What’s in a name? – Redistributing surplus food via Food hubs, food banks, social supermarkets, larders, community fridges and pantries….. Does the label matter?
In this blog post, our colleague Jacqui McDowell gives her views about the variety of community food provision models using surplus food: Surplus food, emergency food aid and the pandemic Putting to one side any debate and discussion on surplus food (such as definitions or sustainability), redirecting surplus food to emergency food aid has been …
Guest Blog: Cooking skills online – learning from Feeding Fifers

Lyndsay Clark from the Feeding Fifers team tell us what they have learnt from putting cooking skills work online: Feeding Fifers now has their very own Face Book page! The Facebook page went live on the 25th November 2020 and now has nearly 300 followers. It has been a steep learning curve for two of …
Supporting your community to get the Covid-19 vaccine
The Screening and Immunisation Team in Public Health Scotland have provided an update about the process of getting the Covid-19 vaccine (8 February 2021): ‘We would like to update you about COVID-19 vaccination invitation process, so that you are well informed to support your community over the coming weeks and months. People are now being …
The Community and Third Sector Recovery Fund is still open
The Community and Third Sector Recovery Fund is continuing to provide grants, including to organisations providing support with food. For more information and to apply visit: https://scvo.scot/support/coronavirus/funding/scottish-government
January e-bulletin
Our latest COVID-19 e-bulletin is now available, giving you information on how community food initiatives are coping with the current lock-down. News about CFIs, research, funding and guidance updates. You can access the e-bulletin here.
New report from the Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has produced ‘Food in a pandemic’ – a new UK-wide research report on food insecurity, diet and eating habits, and food supply. It also explores our food psychology, and finds that most of us have positive views about food, although this varies by age and income. The report is available on …