Sowing the seeds

Scottish Fire Service College – Our path to a better day

Roseanne Wylie, Business Manager, Prestige at the Scottish Fire Service College

Here at the college, we try to make everyone’s day a better day. We pride ourselves on being able to offer a balanced diet. The healthyliving award has given us a step-by-step guide to achieving this.

Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day. We encourage our customers to eat a high-fibre breakfast that will keep them going throughout the day – we call this the “fuller for longer” option. Items include porridge, fruit, plain yoghurt or high-fibre cereal. We offer a selection of brown, malted bread and rolls with low-fat spreads, and fruit juice and water are available.

At lunch we have a delicious assortment of salads, lean meats and oily fish, such as pilchards in a tomato sauce, mackerel or flaked tuna in spring water. We steam, poach, oven bake or grill our meat and fish.

For our afternoon teas we have a variety of sliced fresh fruit, and mixed nuts are available alongside our optional “heavenly treat”.

Dinner in the evening is well thought out after an energetic or classroom-based day.
Students have a huge choice of quality cooked meals, ranging from hearty beef casserole to tangy chicken curry, with brown rice served as an alternative to white rice, potatoes and seasonal vegetables. We regularly remove chips from the menu and replace them with baked potatoes and a variety of fillings, such as chilli con carne.

Staff are trained on healthy living and we update information when required. There is a daily briefing about our menu at service times so that our catering team can assist customers with any enquiries.

Our refectory is full of information for our customers to browse and take away. This is aimed at educating people on the benefits of a balanced diet. We also attempt to avoid placing temptation in the way of our customers at points of sale or in vending machines.

A tip for any organisation aiming to gain the healthyliving award would be to find a healthier alternative for every item on their menu, whether it is a reduced-fat version, low in fat or uses a healthier cooking method, as long as it falls within the criteria set by the award. It can change your life.

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issue 30:
Summer 2014
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NHS Health Scotland - Scotland's health improvement agency