Bolton Primary Care Trust

Your services

Services we provide

Food and Health team

Who are we?

The Food and Health team is the health promotion wing of the Nutrition and Dietetics department:

We sit within children and young people’s services and are made up of food and health advisors and community nutrition workers (Click here to meet the team)
We work with individuals and groups of all ages however we specifically target and prioritise work towards families with children aged 0-5.

What do we do?

Our aim is to support families to identify their own food and health needs and then provide them with the knowledge and skills needed for them to eat well and feel great!

We offer practical advice and support on a range of food and health topics such as:

Cooking skills
Healthy recipe ideas
Label reading and portion sizes
Tips for shopping and cooking on a budget
Healthy eating advice for specific ages and stages:
- Pregnancy
- Babies
- Toddlers
- School children
- Teenagers
- Adults
- Older adults

Some of the activities we provide include:

Displays and information points at community and multi-agency events
Cook and taste sessions or demonstrations
Big cook, tiny cook sessions (practical parent and child food activities)
Fun and interactive group sessions on various topics, eg eating for pregnancy, weaning parties, labe detectives
Structured group programmes, eg happy healthy toddler club
Staff training and workshops, eg eat well, feel well workshops)
Support on developing healthy eating policies or menu planning
Provide unbiased, up to date and evidence based information on nutrition to colleagues in the NHS, partnership agencies, the public and to the media.

We respond to specific group requests for Food and Health team support (see "how do I make a request for food and health team support" below) however we have also set up a number of regular running programmes that are open to any member of the public to come along to (click for current team activities: what, where and when).

Who do we work with?

We prioritise our work to families with 0-5's and those that are most in need of support, especially people who may be facing barriers to healthy eating due to income, budget, knowledge, skills or access to food and facilities. However, we can work with individuals and groups of all ages:

Ante and post-natal groups and toddler groups
Families and young people
Adults and older adults
Carers
Groups with learning difficulties, physical disabilities or mental health illness
Black and minority ethnic groups, refugees and asylum seekers
Those living in sheltered housing, refuge and hostels
Workplaces

How do I make a request for Food and Health team support?

If you work with individuals or groups (especially families with 0-5s) and feel that they might benefit from Food and Health team input or support, then please complete our Food and Health team request form and email it to foodandhealth@bolton.nhs.uk or contact the team on 01204 462694.

Once we’ve received a completed request form we will then get back to you with an answer as to whether we can facilitate your request or not and make further arrangements.

We accept requests from:

Other PCT staff/health professionals (health visitors, nurses, healthy workplace team, health trainers)
Partnership agencies (council, hospital)
Family support workers, community workers
Youth services, Youth Offending team
Schools
Voluntary sector agencies
Charitable organisations
Community groups and residents associations
Training providers and workplaces