Every one a winner

I returned to work yesterday after some annual leave over Easter and saw Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow was in the building to present this year’s Sheila McKechnie community food awards.

It’s the third year of the scheme and I’m told that the quality of this year’s entries was, as always, outstanding. My colleagues who attended the presentation ceremony were, as ever, inspired by the projects they heard about.

What strikes us here at the Agency about all of the McKechnie entrants is the commitment and enthusiasm of the people who have set them up, often in very difficult circumstances and with few resources.

What each project shares is a commitment to improving dietary health. That’s something we take very seriously at the Agency. Some of my colleagues have visited past and present winners and they come back to work genuinely bowled over by the difference each scheme has made in its locality.

I thought it was interesting that both this year’s winning schemes are in parts of the UK that most of us wouldn’t think of as deprived –  the Isle of Wight and Leamington Spa. But, as in most communities, scratch below the surface and there are the same problems caused by poverty and social exclusion.