With an ageing population greater action is needed to ease pressure on health and social care services, says Rosie McLuskie

Thirty years ago, a group of older people in Dumfries realised that some of their friends and neighbours were struggling to get the shopping they needed. Their diet was suffering because they didn’t have access to nutritious food. Many of them lived alone and were becoming increasingly lonely.

They also realised that the only way that these people were going to get better was to take the worry of the heavy weekly shop away from them by finding a way to get their groceries delivered - letting them enjoy a little company as they were dropped off.

Led by the late Jean Mundell - a remarkable community campaigner - they set about tackling the issue by getting a van and starting a service. Food Train was born.

The action of our founders was trailblazing. A simple yet incredibly impactful solution which is as effective today as it was then. Their determination to make a difference in their hometown of Dumfries spread, first across Dumfries and Galloway, then throughout Scotland.

I wonder, though, whether those determined innovators who got our charity on the road would ever have thought that the need they noticed in 1995 would actually be greater in 2025 than it was then? We genuinely believe that it is.

Like all of our team, I hope that they would be proud about what their vision has achieved.

Food Train volunteers have collected millions of pounds-worth of shopping and made hundreds of thousands of deliveries to older people. We currently run shopping services in 10 regions. We have volunteer cooks delivering freshly-made meals in every pocket of the country. Our Eat Well Age Well initiative has led the line in understanding and highlighting the root causes of malnourishment among older people. Our one-to-one befriending service is tackling loneliness nationally.

But we want to do more. Indeed, we need to do more.

Scotland’s population is getting older. In the coming years it is expected to grow older still, by as much as 20%. As we live longer, our health issues become more complex.

A healthy, nutritious diet goes a long way towards managing that, of course.

Yet, in order to achieve that, as a society we need to step up our game around improving food security for older people - making sure they have access to the food they need to eat well and live well.

And that’s the magic of the idea that our charity’s founders had thirty years ago.

Food Train’s shopping services ensure our members get the groceries they need. Our volunteers phone them to get their shopping list, they collect that list from the supermarket and deliver it to their homes. They’ll even unpack and put it in their cupboards too.

It’s more than just a shopping service, though. Every stop along the line brings with it a bit of company - a chance for a chat. Sometimes our volunteers can be the only person that a member speaks to that day. That can make a huge difference to their wellbeing.

We have ambitions to extend our reach, to help make older people healthier and happier.

To do that more effectively, though, we need greater national policy focus on food security for older people - and we need greater recognition among local authorities that services such as those provided by Food Train are a preventative measure. Our unique approach is not something that can be replaced by an online supermarket order. 

By being proactive and commissioning organisations such as ours, we can help ease the strain on under-pressure health and social care services. We will save local taxpayers money in the long-run.

We recently had to make the heartbreaking decision to close our Renfrewshire branch after our local funding was pulled by the region’s health and social care partnership. That’s the exact opposite of what we want to do. We want to be opening more services, not closing those we have.

So, with the same determination that our founders had when they put Food Train on to the road, we are working to create new opportunities to address the growing need to stop older people becoming unwell through malnutrition and loneliness.

If that vision is to reach its full potential, though, we need policymakers and service commissioners to truly recognise the risks of food security among older people and start accelerating action to help organisations like ours tackle it. We’re keen to work with anyone who can make that happen.

Rosie McLuskie is the chief executive of Food Train. Find out more about the charity’s work https://thefoodtrain.co.uk/.