Food For Thought
Greater Nottingham Food Initiatives Group, hosted by Groundwork Greater Nottingham is a partnership between the local authorities, the health sector and the voluntary sector. Mary Kenning explains more about their ‘Food for Thought’ strategy and outlines 3 local initiatives as examples of the strategy in action within the local community.
Project Title: Food for Thought Strategy
Background:
The Food Initiatives Group developed following a series of seminars that were part of Agenda 21 work in the final years of the twentieth century. FIG became a partnership group bringing representatives from public, private and voluntary sectors together with the common recognition that food, health and the environment were linked together.
Aims:
FIG aims to encourage and enable organisations and individuals to produce and eat healthy, safe and affordable food from sustainable sources.
Organisations Involved:
Groundwork Greater Nottingham
Nottinghamshire County Council
Nottingham City, Gedling, Broxtowe PCT
Ashfield DC, Broxtowe BC, Newark and Sherwood DC
Nottingham City Council
The Cooperative Society
Food for Thought Strategy:
In recognition of the need for an integrated food policy that brings together local economic, environmental, cultural, food safety, social and health issues a strategy has been developed. This is called Food for Thought. It contains recommendations that, when put into practice, will contribute to improving food production, diet, health and the environment.
Target Group:
The strategy is aimed primarily at the health service, local authorities, the food and farming industry and the voluntary and community sector in the Greater Nottingham sub-region, but it will hopefully be useful to anyone with an interest in food. It is intended to be used as a working tool, enabling limited resources to work in a coordinated way
To develop the strategy, FIG consulted over 160 different organisations spanning local authorities, the health service, voluntary and community organisations, food producers and retailers and schools and colleges. Six consultation workshops were held in order to create and refine the strategy. The strategy was finally published in 2004.
Eleven key food topics were identified by the consultation group for inclusion in the strategy. These topics span many different aspects of food, including what we eat, the way it is grown and prepared, how it is transported, and how these various factors impact upon our health and our environment.
The eleven key topics of the strategy are as follows:
Food, Health and Nutrition:
Aim: To improve the diet of the local population by providing consistent and appropriate nutrition messages and addressing the potential barriers to achieving a healthier diet.
Recommendations:
- Provide the local population with appropriate dietary information to help people make informed choices about their own diet.
- Raise awareness of the 5 A DAY messages and provide consistent practical ideas and advice for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.
- Ensure by collaboration with FIG partnerships and other local agencies/employers that residents of Greater Nottingham have more opportunities to access a healthier diet, particularly improving access to fruit and vegetables locally.
- Encourage consistent nutrition messages given by health professionals and other agencies with a role in food and nutrition education.
- Consider the potential barriers to consuming a healthier diet, particularly those identified by local research, and support local action to help overcome these.
Food Safety:
Aim: To work with partners to reduce the number of cases, confirmed or otherwise, of food and water borne illness
Recommendations:
- Provide access to a programme of food hygiene training courses available within the Nottingham area.
- Provide information on key food safety and infectious intestinal disease issues that have an impact on residents within the Nottingham area.
- Actively support national food safety initiatives and strategies on the reduction of cases of infectious intestinal disease.
- Support any individual food outlets, retailers, caterers, manufacturers or other places where food is produced, prepared and/or sold that consistently attain standards of food safety above the minimum legal requirements.
- Investigate cases of infectious intestinal disease within the Nottingham area to identify as far as possible sources of illness arising out of the consumption of food contaminated with disease causing organisms.
- Work towards increasing the reporting of infectious intestinal disease in the Nottingham area.
Food and Mental Health:
Aim: To develop awareness of the emotional and psychological dimensions of food growing and consumption
Recommendations:
- Seek ways to re-create eating as a social and interpersonal activity, a special occasion for otherwise isolated and inactive people to improve both diet and social integration, thereby positively impacting on mental and physical health.
- Keep abreast of research regarding the effect of food and nutrients on mental health.
Organic Production:
Aim: To stimulate an expansion of the production and consumption of local organic food
Recommendations:
- Support more local organic food purchasing, including direct from the grower , as a way of reducing the cost of organic food to the consumer.
- Promote education and local awareness raising campaigns on the issues and benefits of organic food production.
- Promote and increase organic food production and distribution on allotments and community gardens .
- Stimulate debate around the subject of organic production.
- Develop additional sales points for local organic vegetables.
Genetically Modified Organisms:
Aim: To raise awareness about the different perspectives that exist regarding genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
Recommendations:
- Stimulate debate around the subject of GMOs and make recommendations to key stakeholders.
- Monitor the scientific research regarding GMOs and their effect on both health and the environment.
Food Production and Biodiversity:
Aim: To encourage methods of food production that protect and enhance biodiversity
Recommendations:
- Improve the local promotion and protection of allotment sites and community gardens.
- Promote the development of area allotment management plans that take into account opportunities for encouraging biodiversity.
- Promote the ecological value of allotments and gardens, both community and private.
- Raise awareness about how organic production benefits biodiversity.
Waste and composting:
Aim: To reduce the amount of waste associated with the production, consumption and disposal of food that is sent to landfill or incineration
Recommendations:
- Provide support for schemes that encourage home and community composting.
- Raise awareness of the issues around food and waste.
- Reduce the amount of food packaging going to landfill or incineration.
Animal Welfare
Aim: To promote high standards of animal welfare
Recommendations:
- Increase awareness of high standard of meat production in UK compared to elsewhere.
- Raise awareness of the animal welfare issues in modern animal rearing.
- Raise awareness of and promote schemes which promote high standards of animal welfare.
Inequality and Food Access:
Aim: To address issues of social exclusion and ensure that people on a low income have access to healthy, affordable food
Recommendations:
- Support community development projects that improve access to healthy affordable food.
- Influence local policy around infrastructure e.g. transport links and locations of shops to improve access to healthy affordable food.
- Raise awareness of food poverty and its causes.
- Support people on a low income in developing food-related skills.
- Improve knowledge of the social economy as it relates to local food initiatives.
- Strengthen the local food social economy sector.
- Support and develop local food initiatives within the social economy.
Local food
Aim: To increase the local consumption of locally produced food in Nottinghamshire
Recommendations:
- Encourage more organisations and businesses to purchase local food.
- Raise awareness about the value of local food, and provide education about where our food comes from.
- Work with procurers and caterers to facilitate the procurement of local produce in the public sector.
- Build the capacity of producers to supply local authorities, schools and hospitals, giving them the power to tender.
- Promote seasonality of fruit and vegetables to consumers, procurers and caterers.
- Develop a regional network of local producers and improve the support given to these producers.
- Help local food growers develop new local markets for their produce.
Food, the Global Perspective:
Aim: To raise awareness of the effects of the world trade system on small farmers and commodity producers in the developing world
Recommendations:
- Increase individual and institutional purchasing of products bearing the Fairtrade Mark locally.
- Nottinghamshire to become the first ‘Fairtrade County’ in the UK recognised by the Fairtrade Foundation.
Case Studies from FIG:
FIG Small Grants Scheme : For several years FIG has offered a small grants scheme to local groups to develop food and health related work. The grants have ranged in size from £200 up to £1000. They have given a very diverse range of community activities the opportunity to develop a particular project. Examples include support for the infrastructure of raised beds on allotments to enable disabled people to garden, fruit bushes and apple press for a Community Orchard, international food awareness tastings and cooking demonstrations for clients in the mental health sector, a student project to encourage healthy eating in the student population.
Stapleford Community Allotment Project: This project is in a deprived suburb of Greater Nottingham where health inequalities are very high. The local town council gave several derelict allotment plots to allow a community project to develop. A strong partnership group developed, bringing staff from the Borough Council, the PCT, Groundwork and FIG together. FIG provided specialist support for the project to get the infrastructure developed – which now includes a superb polytunnel. In a relatively short space of time the project is bringing a diverse range of benefits to the local community
Local Food Development through Notts Nosh and Big Barn : One aspect of FIG’s work is to encourage more sustainable food systems. Notts Nosh is a directory of food producers who use locally grown produce and supply directly to the public. FIG has researched and updated the information and raised funds to cover the reprint of a revised edition in 2006. This work sits well alongside the Big Barn project. Big Barn is a national web based information system to enable consumers to access their local food suppliers. FIG has a contract to populate the Big Barn site with Nottinghamshire local food producers. The Big Barn web based mapping system can be accessed directly via the FIG website.
Funding:
FIG is currently funded by the Health sector and the local authorities.
Sustainability:
FIG has now been running for six years. The funding base is diversifying and it is hope to secure Lottery Funds in the future.
Evaluation:
FIG’s diverse range of activities make it very difficult to evaluate. Like any other food project with many faceted outcomes there is no best way of evaluating it as a whole. Different activities are individually evaluated and appraised.
FIG was presented with a Caroline Walker Trust Award in 2005 for promoting public health through good food.
Lessons Learnt:
Food is a very dynamic area to be working in at the current time. Keep up to date with current issues around the food scene.
Work with a diverse range of funders and try to maintain reserves.
Further Information:
For further information about FIG see website www.foodfig.org.uk, email fig@groundwork.org.uk . A copy of the strategy Food for thought is available in pdf format .
Contact Details:
Contact Mary Kenning
Address:
Food Initiatives Group
Groundwork Greater Nottingham
Denman Street East
Nottingham
NG7 3GX
Tel. 0115 978 8212