SATURDAY 14 SEPTEMBER from 10 – 11.30
FREE GARDENING WORKSHOP
SATURDAY 14 SEPTEMBER from 10 – 11.30
FREE GARDENING WORKSHOP
Visitor attractions are “slicing, dicing and ditching” children’s menus as they battle with rising ingredient costs and staff shortages, a new Soil Association campaign has revealed.
The food and farming charity has ranked 16 of the UK’s leading attractions in a new league table after an army of “secret diner” parents helped to assess the quality of food on offer.
The investigation found children’s menus are suffering as venues and caterers face huge pressures following Covid-19 closures and ongoing staffing and supply chain disruption linked to Brexit and the Ukraine war.
Parents reported a lack of options with children’s menus removed entirely or smaller than before the pandemic. Children aren’t offered hot meals at almost half of venues and several only offered “nutritionally inadequate” packed lunches lacking fruit or veg.
A lack of kids’ meals and an abundance of sugary treats saw Drayton Manor take bottom place in the league table – while the Eden Project came top by serving balanced meals with local, fresh, sustainable ingredients.
Soil Association Head of Food Policy Rob Percival said: “It’s alarming that venues are slicing, dicing, or ditching child appropriate menus. It’s a tough environment for caterers, who are grappling with staff shortages and rising ingredients costs, but it’s disappointing that children’s health seems to be taking the hit.
“In a cost-of-living crisis, when every penny counts, parents should not be forced to buy large adult portions or waste money on nutritionally inadequate meals for their children.”
The investigation found having a range of children’s meals and healthy options were the top priorities for parents on a day out. More than half of parents surveyed chose one of these options as their number one priority, compared to just 1% who picked “treat” or “junk” food.1
But less than half of these leading attractions are serving veg with every kid’s meal – while adults are offered a much larger and diverse menu with more choices to eat healthily.
Percival added: “Everyone likes a treat, but our secret diner parents told us they want diverse and exciting children’s menus. They also want attractions to make it easy for their youngsters to enjoy a healthy meal on days out – some of these attractions simply must do better.
“It’s essential that venues take responsibility for how family days out shape expectations around ‘treat food’. They must stop promoting an unhealthy ideal which, parents tell us, tracks back home.
“Offering more veg and less fried or sugary food isn’t that difficult or expensive. In fact, there is little variation in meal prices between the top and bottom of the league table, and several high performing attractions have free entry.
“Finding good food for kids is the real roller coaster at UK attractions, but there are some great examples of caterers who do put children’s health first. The others must catch up.”
The investigation found that the higher quality meals at the top two attractions are also among the more affordable days out. Second place holder Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh doesn’t charge for entry and eating out at league table leader Eden Project costs just 24p more than dining with bottom-place Drayton Manor.
Becky Fenner, Eden’s Hospitality Manager, said: “We are delighted to have come top of the Out to Lunch league table. The Eden Project’s mission centres around building relationships between people and planet to demonstrate the power of working together for the benefit of all living things.
“Central to this is our food story. We explore ways to deliver Earth-friendly food at scale using a food system rather than a food product approach, finding ways of producing food in a regenerative system that is climate positive, increases biodiversity and enhances soil health. Healthy planet – healthy people.”
Kids targeted with junk
Parents raised concerns that junk food was being marketed directly to young children.
Secret diners at Drayton Manor reported tactical junk food placements across the site with doughnuts and sweets at checkouts and no healthy snacks available.
Secret diner Eve Thomas visited Drayton Manor with her two children, aged three and seven. She said: “I was surprised at how few healthy options were available. Thomas Land had two shops just for sweets and they were big cartons not novelty sized!
“Some rides also required you to walk through the shop after, where there were tubs of sweets and candy floss everywhere. With kids now learning about healthy eating at school, it would have been nice for Thomas and friends to be supporting these messages.
“Plus, in the restaurant they had doughnuts prominently at the counter, which hooked my two in. It was hard to buy fruit shoots, milk, or juice options – it was mostly fizzy drinks on offer.”
Legoland – the most expensive day out on the table – came in at position 13 after making little progress since it bottomed the previous league table in 2018.
The attraction has failed to meet its pledge from four years ago to serve veg with every kid’s meal, and fried food remains the dominant food on offer.
Maxed out with sugar
Soil Association experts were also disappointed to see high quantities of sugar at many venues, particularly those near the bottom of the table.
Percival added: “These family attractions need to lay off the sugar. A shocking 80% of desserts stated to be suitable for children across the attractions contain 19g of sugar or more, blowing a four-to-six-year-old child’s daily sugar allowance in one go.
“And what’s worse is the sugar content is rarely advertised so parents faced with ‘pester power’ from their kids can’t even make informed decisions.”
Whipsnade Zoo’s chocolate brownie, aimed at both adults and children, was the worst offender containing 73g of sugar. This is more than twice the recommended daily allowance for adults (30g) and nearly four times the limit for four- to six-year-olds (19g).
Drayton Manor secret diner Eve added: “By the drive home the kids even headed to the fruit boxes at the service station – they knew they had maxed out.”
The Soil Association is calling for attractions to:
For more information on the campaign and for a full profile for each attraction, visit www.soilassociation.org/outtolunch.
Work has finished to complete this year’s design on the world’s oldest Floral Clock in Edinburgh’s West Princes Street Gardens.
For 2021, the hugely popular landmark will celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), postponed from 2020 where it was decided with support from RBGE to dedicate the floral clock to NHS and key workers as a message of thanks from the city.
Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Frank Ross was joined by Simon Milne MBE, Regius Keeper of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, RBGE horticulturists and Council parks staff responsible for creating the clock. Together they officially unveiled this year’s intricate design.
The council’s team of three gardeners took seven weeks to plant over 35,000 flowers and plants used to create the clock, which will be in bloom until October.
There are over 15 different plants included in this year’s design including many donated by RBGE such as Agave kerchovei and Agave sebastiana, various species of Echevaria and Cyanotis somaliensis: all of them are integral to the RBGE Living Collection of plants.
The two teams had worked closely on the design and creation of this year’s display, with the Council’s Floral Clock experts advising on colours and choice of plants and how best to present the RBGE logo.
The logo is representative of the Sibbaldia procumbens, a creeping plant in the rose family, that was named after the Garden’s co-founder, Sir Robert Sibbald.
Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Frank Ross, who spoke at the official dedication, said: “I am delighted to once again see the city’s beautiful floral clock completed, which I know will be enjoyed by everyone who passes by it this summer. Much like the city’s floral clock, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is iconic to Edinburgh’s past and present and this year’s design celebrates 350 years.
“As always, I am delighted to officially unveil this striking and much-loved creation and I’d like to congratulate our dedicated and creative parks team who have put together the design and we can all now enjoy their realised vision.”
Simon Milne MBE, Regius Keeper, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said: “It’s wonderful to see our 350th anniversary celebrated in such magnificent floral fashion, reflecting the four centuries of friendship between the City of Edinburgh and the Botanics.
“The Floral Clock is a particularly apt way of celebrating the work of the Garden. At a time when 40 percent of plant species are at risk of extinction, our research and conservation work, supported by our visionary Edinburgh Biomes project, has never been more vital. We are grateful as always for the interest and support of the people and city of Edinburgh.”
The Floral Clock was first created in 1903 by then Edinburgh Parks Superintendent, John McHattie, and is the oldest of its kind in the world. It initially operated with just an hour hand, with a minute hand added in 1904, followed by a cuckoo clock in 1952. Until 1972 the clock was operated mechanically and had to be wound daily.
Since 1946 it has been designed in honour of various organisations and individuals, including the Girl Guides Association, Robert Louis Stevenson and the Queen, for her Golden Jubilee. In the clock’s centenary year in 2003 it won a Gold medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Join an upcoming Online Workshop: “Planning your Plot” with the Edible Gardening Project at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
19 February 2-3pm
24 February 10-11am
25 February 3-4pm
In Winter we have time to reflect on our successes and failures from last year’s growing season. Come and join the Botanic Garden’s Edible Gardening project for a session on ‘how to plan your plot’ to maximize your production while looking after your soil’s health.
Please select 1 session only as each is repeated 3 times.
Email eleslie@rbge.org.uk for more info.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/91852338629…
Meeting ID: 918 5233 8629
Passcode: 310773
Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC) is to start a regular growing group at the botanic garden.
If interested in joining, please email cfc@elrec.org.uk
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) has won the backing of city councillors to proceed with an ambitious £70m initiative to safeguard Scotland’s priceless national plant collections and future proof its status as a world-leading centre for plant science, education, horticulture and conservation.
State-of-the-art facilities will underpin the Garden’s core activities, while the visitor experience will be greatly enhanced through the refurbishment and extension of the popular public Glasshouses. Continue reading Councillors back Botanics’ Biomes project
Whether you love the Botanic Gardens or have never visited before, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh would love to hear from you!
They’re looking to speak to local residents to hear what you think about the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and chat about ideas for new opportunities which could take place as a result of the Edinburgh Biomes project. Continue reading Have your say on the future of the Botanic Gardens
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum), one of the world’s biggest and smelliest blooms, came into flower on Sunday. The Garden stayed open late into the evening to give curious visitors the chance to see, and smell, the plant in all its pungent glory!
Good morning! Isn't it a bit of a dreich one? My smell level is low-moderate so if you've a weaker constitution now is the time to come and see my magnificence! My glasshouse is open from 10am today, and my #TitanArmy are ready and waiting for you all.#NewReekie #stinkyplants pic.twitter.com/jsbrvoNxOr
— Titan Arum Edinburgh (@TitanArumRBGE) June 24, 2019
Visit the RBGE website or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates on what the plant is doing.
The Fischy Choirs Summer Concert took place at Royal Botanic Gardens in Inverleith on Monday.
Continue reading Feeling Good: Fischy Choirs make sweet music at The Botanics
This Thursday from 6 – 8pm at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
The Edinburgh Shoreline project and Creative Carbon Scotland are excited to announce their second Green Tease event.
One year on from the start of the Edinburgh Shoreline project, you are invited to join us to reflect on project learning and activity to date and in being the first to explore a new interactive map of Edinburgh’s coast.
Continue reading Edinburgh Shoreline Project: Green Tease event this Thursday
On 1 November (this Thursday), the Landscape Institute is hosting the annual Jellicoe Lecture, a free event designed to inspire leadership within the landscape profession, at Edinburgh’s iconic Royal Botanic Garden. Continue reading Landscape Institute’s Jellicoe Lecture at The Botanics