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Building public awareness, active food citizenship and a local good food movement

Plymouth faces a number of food related challenges from obesity and diet-related ill health to poor access to affordable and nutritious food. Poor diet, along with obesity, is one of the leading causes of disease including cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The ongoing work of Food Plymouth with its local partners aims to promote more public consumption of fresh, seasonal, local, food that is good for health and the planet, We want Plymouth to be a place where the healthy choices are the easy choices.

Plymouth has a range of local food projects that promote healthy eating, e.g. Sugar Smart campaign; One You Plymouth;  Food is Fun CIC; Breastfeeding ‘Latch on groups’ (Livewell SW). These projects create opportunities for the public to see, taste and learn about healthy and sustainable food.

Food Plymouth Charter

Our Historical Food Charter has been refreshed to encapsulate the six SFP themes as a food vision for our city. We are encouraging our partners to engage with new supporters to pledge their action. Food Plymouth already has a strong identity and recognized brand. This enables us to promote all our great work on healthy and sustainable food in Plymouth and provides a trusted and credible endorsement for those who pledge to support us.

Sugar Smart Plymouth

SUGAR SMART is a national campaign run by Sustain. Sugar Smart Plymouth was created in 2017 to help organisations, workplaces and individuals to be more aware of the sugar in their food and drinks. We have run a successful Sugar Smart ambassador training programme in Plymouth (50+ ambassadors have been trained to spread the message), and this will continue to have impact.

Anyone can pledge to become SUGAR SMART. We are connecting people, organisations and communities across the South West and beyond. Together we can share ideas, resources and success stories across our SUGAR SMART network.

How this supports the Sustainable Food Places Silver award

Recommendations have been made in Plymouth for ‘improved nutrition across the city’ (Fairness Commission, 2014), with recent evidence showing clear differences in the access to, and cost and availability of healthy foods in areas of contrasting deprivation in Plymouth (Williamson et al., 2017).

The Sugar Smart campaign impacts on key local strategies – it fits with Plymouth’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy (Plymouth City Council, 2014) and aligns with our ambitions for Thrive Plymouth [cp1] – our 10 year programme to address health inequalities in the city.

How to get involved

One You Plymouth

Start looking after yourselves by changing your lifestyle – there a many different ways you can do this.

The One You Plymouth team provide suggestions and support for those who want to try to improve their mental and physical health.

Take their online quiz to see how you score.