Food & Health Alliance

A Polish translation service might not seem at first glance to be that relevant, either to the production of prepared vegetables or improving the health of the workforce.

However, for Gretna-based Parripak (who previously operated for 25 years as Solway Veg Ltd), which processes raw vegetables for the supermarket, hotel and restaurant trade, it was a small but important step in attaining its Healthy Working Lives (HWL) Bronze Award earlier this year.

The company introduced a number of healthy initiatives as part of its bid, including a smoking cessation scheme that was open to its entire 100-strong workforce. The only problem was that a significant proportion of its staff are from Eastern Europe and so were unable to understand all the literature.

After representations by staff, the company decided to ask one of its Polish-speaking staff members to translate all the leaflets into Polish – a language most Eastern Europeans can understand. The result, according to Project Manager Malcolm Laidlaw, is that two Polish members of staff have now quit the habit, which is, of course, exactly what Healthy Working Lives is all about.

The Healthy Working Lives Awards Programme aims to help organisations develop health promotion and safety themes in their workplace in a way that’s beneficial to both the group and its staff.

Malcolm says that the Gretna branch of Parripak decided to work for the Bronze Award last year because it wanted to promote a health and safety initiative focused, not just on regulations, but on the staff themselves.  

He admits he didn’t realise quite what he was letting himself in for when they began. Achieving the Bronze Award has taken nearly a year and involved not only meeting basic health and safety criteria, but also setting up a working group and conducting a health needs assessment of the whole workforce to establish priorities.

This, in turn, led to the smoking cessation scheme as well as promoting stress, breast and skin cancer awareness, and encouraging healthy eating in the workplace and at home.

The company had a head start with healthy eating because it was already running a weekly scheme selling its vegetables – mainly potatoes, carrots and swedes – to its staff, at cost price. The scheme has been extremely popular and resulted in 5.7 tonnes of the company’s produce being consumed in staff homes in 2008.

Parripak is now working for its Silver Award which it hopes to achieve by early next year. Projects include a sponsored slim and a number of initiatives to cut waste. In the next few months, it is also hoped to begin stress awareness training and to institute a company-wide drugs and alcohol policy.

The sponsored slim has already attracted interest with four members of staff taking part and managing to shed a combined stone in weight in their first four weeks. Richard Smith, the Dumfries and Galloway HWL Adviser, made several visits to offer advice on healthy eating and exercise targets and has been suitably impressed. ‘They certainly are taking this very seriously,’ he observes.

‘It’s all a matter of continuing to build on what you’ve already done,’ explains Malcolm. Might they consider going for the Gold Award after Silver? ‘Obviously we’d like to, but it all depends how realistic that is. 

‘Working for the HWL Awards has been a valuable exercise for the organisation,’ he says, ‘and it’s also proved popular with many staff.’

‘We’ve achieved what we hoped to achieve, that is giving the site a people-based award and also giving something back to our staff in terms of improving health and safety, and raising awareness of various health-related issues.’

Parripak is part of the William Jackson Group who are also a member of the Food and Drink Federation.