Chair, Food in Later Life meeting and Chair, Age Concern Surrey

'Food is a catalyst for all kinds of social activity'

"I knew very little about this subject and I've found it to be a very interesting one. What struck me most was the degree to which food becomes a catalyst for all kinds of social activity - just think about shopping: people actually enjoy shopping. One of the lessons that comes out of this is that supermarkets don't think about old people enjoying shopping.

What do they lay on? Cafes that are Starbucks. Expensive, large mugs of cappuccino rather than the German style coffee shop where you can buy a small cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate cake which is what old people want.

If you think about eating and food preparation in the kitchen - the kitchen is so often a centre where people meet and talk as you prepare food. Eating again is a social activity.

If you think for example about Day Care Centres, eating is an important part of it, a bringing together and we know that's why people like coming to Day Centres. The quality of the food they may complain about, but it's meeting people that is important!

I'm not sure we do enough when we think about social housing for old people in terms of providing them with opportunities to meet together, and perhaps prepare food together sometimes and eat together more. Often we give them their little 'cells' and we expect them to live in those little cells all day long.

This concept of food providing the catalyst for social activity comes out very strongly."

Biography
Margaret Sharp is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords and speaks for her party on education.
A Cambridge-educated economist, her first 'proper job' was in the civil service and her career since then has spanned both academic life and public service. She has taught at LSE and at the University of Sussex, where she was Associate Director of the ESRC Centre for Science, Technology, Energy and Environmental Policy at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU). She has written and spoken widely on the impact of new technologies on the European economies and is well known for her work on the emergence of biotechnology.
Margaret Sharp retired from the University of Sussex in 1999 after becoming a member of the House of Lords in 1998 but retains a visiting fellowship and has been awarded an honorary degree by that university. She also holds an honorary fellowship from the City and Guilds Institute in recognition of her interest in the training of young people in vocational skills. She is also a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology.
Her political activities have stimulated interest in developments relating to older people and she became a trustee of Age Concern Surrey in 2001, taking over as chairman in July 2004. Age Concern Surrey has close links with the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender at the University of Surrey.