QUALITY Meat Scotland (QMS) undertakes a range of health and education activities which are focussed on improving Scottish families’ understanding of the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet and red meat’s role in achieving that. 
Below is a snapshot of some of the work carried out by QMS this year.

School visits and events
During 2016, QMS’s Health and Education team delivered 150 education sessions and cookery demonstrations reaching nearly 3000 pupils, plus more than 50 education sessions to school children attending food and farming days. Talks and demonstrations were also given to parents and community groups.

Scotch Beef Children’s Cookery Theatre
QMS again supported the Scotch Beef Children’s Cookery Theatre in the Discovery Centre at the Royal Highland Show.
One of the highlights was a brand new education area on the QMS main stand. This bright, vibrant area had a focus on three key issues – red meat and health, animal welfare, and a positive environmental message of red meat production in Scotland.
The new area was a huge hit with visitors of all ages and included interactive activities such as touch and feel sensory unit; guess the breed challenge; wordsearch; proteens challenges; and brass picture rubbings for little ones.
QMS staff were joined by representatives from the Scottish SPCA and ‘Love food hate waste’, who each ran activities with visitors. 

My town, My burger competition 
The QMS burger competition for first year pupils was a great hit in 2016, with nearly 250 entries from 19 different schools. Six semi-finalists worked with a member of the Scotch Butchers Club to create their own unique burger inspired by their local town. 
The winner was Callum MacRitchie from the Isle of Lewis who, along with the team at Charles MacLeod, Stornoway, created the ‘big marag’ burger that contained Specially Selected Pork and Stornoway black pudding. All finalists were presented with prizes by TV presenter Michelle McManus.

Social Media 
The ‘Good family food’ Facebook page, aimed at Scottish families, continues to be updated with tasty seasonal recipe ideas using beef, lamb and pork, with the help of chef Daniela Forbes. 
This year QMS added new quick-time recipe videos and five new weaning videos with food blogger and Great British Bake Off star Holly Bell, providing advice on introducing red meat into babies’ diets, plus three great recipes. 
The content featured on Holly’s own blog as well as on a number of top parenting websites such as MumsNet. Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork healthy living recipes have also featured throughout the year on the Scottish Slimmers’ website and Scottish Slimmers’ magazine.

Food Education Partners 
QMS is an active member of the Food Education Partners group, facilitated by Education Scotland.
Activities QMS has been involved in include the following: the College Development Network’s Food and Drink careers event in Fife; the ‘Make it with meat’ project with the Scottish Food and Drink Federation and Bathgate Academy; Borders Union Children’s Show; Scotsheep; the Scottish Learning Festival; and sportscotland Institute of Sport
Working with a number of partners led by the Royal Highland Education Trust, QMS has assisted in developing and delivering the ‘Good Food champions’ General Teaching Council Scotland-accredited teacher training programme on Food and Farming in Scotland.
The pilot scheme ran with 11 teachers in Aberdeen City/Aberdeenshire and activities involved farm visits, food manufacturing site visits and cooking, as well as number of guest speaker talks and presentations.
The 2016/17 contingent are from Glasgow and the surrounding areas and are enjoying a full programme of events and workshops.

Farm Visits and Events 
QMS continues to work closely with RHET, supporting local coordinators in attending food and farming events and providing resources. This year the organisation extended its support of Open Farm Sunday by encouraging Scottish farmers to get involved.

Street Soccer Scotland 
QMS continued its support of Street Soccer Scotland during the 2015/16 year, with one of the highlights being the Homeless World Cup (HWC) in George Square, Glasgow. The HWC saw 100,000 fans watch matches live in George Square, with two million more watching on TV.

Champions in Scotland 
As a founding partner of Champions in Schools, QMS is continuing to support the newly repositioned Champions in Scotland programme which sees athletes from across the country visit schools, often including a cookery demonstration from the athletes themselves.

Young Scots Awards 
QMS sponsored the volunteering category. The winner, Alice Bowman, from Blairgowrie, was presented with her award by X-Factor star, Nicolas McDonald, Scotch Beef mascot Hamish and QMS health and education executive Jenni Henderson. Scotch Beef was the main course at the awards attended by 500 young people.