dcfa feb-mar 2011 newsletter
TRANSCRIPT
8/7/2019 DCFA Feb-Mar 2011 Newsletter
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The Devon & Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA) is aPrivate Company Limited by Guarantee.
Registered Company Number: 07419679. Registered Charity Number: Pending
Members of :
NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations)
PTSC (The Plymouth Third Sector Consortium),
and The Small Charities Coalition.
Our Funder:
...And Voluntary Donations.
The Devon & Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA)
NEWSLETTER
February - March 2011 Spare Food is Share Food!
7 Whimple Street, Plymouth, Devon PL1 2DH Mobile: 07745819828 (text only ) Email: [email protected] Website:http://dcfa.webs.com
FOREWORD BY THE CHAIR
Dear Friends and Supporters,
May 2010... a dream. February 2011... a reality!
All the talking, the planning and frustrations have bornefruit, as we started trading on Wednesday, 23
rdFebruary
2011, albeit in a modest way to begin with! We’ve come
this far with patience and determination and it would be a
pity if all that groundwork became undone by us going too
fast! We have had to restrain our eagerness as we needed
to learn walk before we could run. Yes, we did fall over a
couple of times, but we picked ourselves up, brushed
ourselves down and carried on.
My fellow Trustees have been working so very hard behind
the scenes and are to be applauded for their dedication.
And all our necessary registration papers, insurance
documentation, etc., is now in place...well, almost!
We are so very grateful to the small volunteer team of
students from the Plymouth City College who helped us at
the Devonport Guildhall event and on our first trading day.
We are particularly grateful to Danielle JACKSON, their
Training Office, for all the help she has given.
We still have a lot to do so we must all be patient a little
while longer.
We hope you will continue to share this journey with us
and watch us grow, and grow!
Christine
Christine Reid
Chair
DCFA Board of Trustees
DCFA NEWS
UNDRAISER. This is a time-consuming occupation but a
very important one for us. We are looking for someone
who has experience in this field of expertise to help us in a
voluntary capacity. Interested? Please contact Geoff
(details at the top of the page).
ARJON FIELDWORK SUPERVISORS’ BRIEFING.
Marjon invited
current and
prospective Field Work
Supervisors to their
second Briefing on
Friday, 4th
February
2011. That meeting gave another opportunity for new
Supervisors to find out what is involved in having a UCP
Marjon Youth & Community student on placement, as well
as an opportunity for experienced Fieldwork Supervisors to
update themselves on the processes and procedures.Our DCFA Secretary, Geoff, attended and one of Co-opted
Members to our Board of Trustees, Hazel, also attended but
was representing Plymouth Community Homes.
For further information please contact:
DDOO YYOOUU WWIISSHH TTOO BBEECCOOMMEE AA
FFRRIIEENNDD OOFF DDCCFFAA??
GGoo oonn--lliinnee,, ddoowwnnllooaadd tthhee
AApppplliiccaattiioonn FFoorrmm,, ccoommpplleettee tthhee
ddeettaaiillss aanndd ssuubbmmiitt iitt ttoo GGeeoof f f f ..
F
M
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2
USTAINABLE FOOD FAYRE AT DEVONPORT GUILDHALL.
Devonport Guildhall was awash with stalls displaying
their wares and people milling about sampling goodies, on
Thursday, 17th
February 2011.
Why was this? It was the launch of the new Plymouth Food
Charter1. This event was funded by the South West Food &
Drink Association. Approximately 150 people attended the
event. There were chefs preparing fine food, together with
the staff of Devonport Guildhall. There was a delivery of
organic food by boat, which had sailed down the River
Tamar to the event.
Tucked away in the corner and sharing a table was the
DCFA Display Stand. Decorated by Danielle JACKSON and
Student Volunteers from the Plymouth City College. Julia
POLLARD from WRAP2
and Eunice HALLIDAY a DCFA
Trustee, also helped out.
The theme was Apples and these were distributed to
curious customers! The location of our stall was not ideal,
but thanks to two Co-opted Members of our Board of
Trustees, Patrick and Gitty, who were busy networking,
offers Food Produce came pouring in to our Secretary!
Each little thing helps to promote the cause of DCFA.Our especial thanks to Danielle and to her Students who
helped on the day.
Submitted by Christine REID, DCFA Chair
The picture below shows Polly FITZSIMMONS one of our
Student Volunteers from Plymouth City College...
Photograph courtesy Danielle JACKSON
TTHHIISS SSPPAACCEE CCOOUULLDD HHAAVVEE BBEEEENN UUSSEEDD
TTOO PPLLAACCEE
YYOOUURR NNOOTTIICCEE!!
WWhhyy nnoott ccoonnttaacctt tthhee EEddiittoorr??
1 http://www.tasteofthewest.co.uk/content/sustainable-food-city-
plymouth.html 2 http://www.wrap.org.uk/
DCFA PRESS RELEASE
RESS RELEASE. Our Public Relations Officer, Alison SHAW
issued our second Press Release, in February 2011. Full
details are shown below:
Project commences trading in the South West
This exciting initiative begins trading today on Wednesday,23
rdFebruary after nine months of planning and
preparation.
The Devon & Cornwall Food Association (DCFA) was formed
to provide good quality food to organisations working with
disadvantaged people within our communities. Every year
millions of tonnes of first class food ends up in landfill sites.
At the same time, even in today’s society, there are
thousands of men, women and children living in poverty in
our cities, towns and villages.
The DCFA plans eventually to become part of FareShare UK
which is a national charity supporting communities to
relieve food poverty, and in-date food will be collectedfrom the FareShare South West outlet at Bristol on a
regular basis.
The DCFA is a private company limited by guarantee and
has an elected Board of Trustees; and all of its Trustees are
very much hands-on within the organisation. DCFA is
currently in the process of becoming a Registered Charity
under the auspices of the Charity Commission.
DCFA intends to receive and distribute food produce on a
weekly basis initially during the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
at the Salvation Army Congress Hall, Armada Way in
Plymouth City Centre. DCFA is currently dealing with just
one major food producer at present: Robert Wiseman &Sons Limited based at Pensilva in Cornwall.
Our Student Volunteers from the Plymouth City College, led
by their Training Officer, Ms. Danielle Jackson, will be
receiving the produce and distributing it out to the ten
charitable organisations in the Plymouth Postcode area that
have registered with the DCFA.
The students will also be assisting in the setting up of a
monitoring and recording system to keep track of all the
produce received and distributed.
A DCFA spokesperson said ...
“We are grateful and delighted with the response from both
Wiseman Dairies and the Plymouth City College, and theinterest and support we have received from right across the
South West. We are working closely with FareShare South
West, based at Bristol, and many other organisations,
including food distributors and producers.
The DCFA is urgently seeking funds to acquire permanent
storage facilities, cold storage and transport. We are
earnestly hoping that perhaps there is someone reading
this who could help us with this so we can become better
established with permanent premises. We are also looking
for a rota of drivers to drive to Bristol on a weekly basis to
collect food whilst making a drop-offat Exter en route to
Plymouth.
SP
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We have received a generous grant from the Church Urban
Fund to cover some of our setting-up costs but continual
fundraising is vital. Again, if there is anyone reading this who is
admin- minded... you may be just the person we need to help
with our fund raising bids! This can be done day or night, any
place... so long as you have access to a computer!“
If you can help in any way, please get in touch with our
Company Secretary, Geoff Read, by telephoning 07745819828
or by emailing him on: [email protected]
If you are interested in finding out more about our
charitable organisation and its aims, please visit our website
at http://dcfa.webs.com/
To find out more about FareShare UK, please visit
www.fareshare.org.uk
Patrick HUDSON and Andy HAWKINS doing something
useful at last... unloading the very first delivery of milk from
Robert Wisemans & Sons based at Pensilva, Cornwall.
Picture courtesy Christine REID
Almost 300 litres of milk received and distributed to
nine charitable groups throughout the Plymouth
postcode area. Each
group will greatly
benefit from this. If
DCFA continues at this
rate, it will result in adiversion of around 15
tonnes of milk a year
from landfill / low-
grade use and be a
boost to recipient organisations of around £15,000
in savings per year. If that’s not something to jump
up and down about I don’t know what is! Contributed by Patrick HUDSON
DDOO YYOOUU WWIISSHH TTOO
VVOOLLUUNNTTEEEERR WWIITTHH DDCCFFAA??
GGoo oonn--lliinnee,, ddoowwnnllooaadd tthhee
AApppplliiccaattiioonn FFoorrmm,, ccoommpplleettee tthhee
ddeettaaiillss aanndd ssuubbmmiitt iitt ttoo GGeeoof f f f ..
DCFA MEETINGS
ARCH 2011. Our next Board Meeting will be held at
10.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 1st
March 2011 in the
Tapisers Room at The Old Deanery in Exeter. Any
suggested items for discussion should be sent to theSecretary (contact details at the foot of the page).
UTURE MEETINGS. All future meetings will be
scheduled for 10.30 a.m. but are subject to change at
short notice.
Tuesday, 12th
April 2011(Please note that this meeting is one week later than normally scheduled
and will start at 11.30 a.m. and not 10.30 as usual).
- General Board Meeting (Truro)
Tuesday, 3rd
May 2011
- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)
Tuesday, 7th
June 2011
- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)
Tuesday, 5th
July 2011
- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)
Tuesday, 2nd
August 2011
- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)
Tuesday, 8th
November 2011
- Annual General Meeting (Plymouth
AY 2011 MEETING. Catherine Street Baptist Church
will not be available to us for our meeting on
Tuesday, 3rd
May 2011. This meeting will therefore be held
in the Theatre Royal by kind permission of their
Management.
NNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2011. Our AGM will be
held on Tuesday, 8th
November 2011 and we’re already
looking for one or two Guest Speakers. Can you help or do
you know someone that can? Please contact Geoff (details
at the top of Page 1).
M
F
M
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DDOO YYOOUU WWIISSHH TTOO BBEECCOOMMEE AA
FFRRIIEENNDD OOFF DDCCFFAA??
GGoo oonn--lliinnee,, ddoowwnnllooaadd tthhee
AApppplliiccaattiioonn FFoorrmm,, ccoommpplleettee tthhee ddeettaaiillss aanndd ssuubbmmiitt iitt ttoo GGeeoof f f f ..
EVERYONE DESERVES THEIR FARESHARE!An article by Alison SHAW... a DCFA Trustee
HIS banner greeted us recently when a group from the
DCFA visited FareShare South West at Bristol to see how
their operation worked and how we might become part of it.
During our morning’s visit we were warmly welcomed by
FareShare SW’s employed workers, Pete and Jacqui, and by the
numerous volunteers of whom there are around 40 or so.
Many of the volunteers come from the organisations that are
helped with food supplies and an important part of the
Fareshare ethos is that there are regular meetings with
volunteers and the support of an NHS Forensic Mental Heath
Worker. The Big Issue played an important part in advertising
for volunteers when FareShare SW opened its doors in October
2007.
Fareshare SW provides a community food network with
cookery projects and works with 15 schools and the University
of the West of England. It delivers to 34 groups who each pay
an annual membership subscription based on their numbers.
Groups such as church projects, day centres and night centres
all benefit.
Food comes into FareShare SW from a variety of sources...
Sainsburys and Nestle being big suppliers of surplus food. Fresh
food provides the backbone with ready meals and pasta, rice,
and cook-in-sauces too.
We were all astounded by the numbers catered for... in
November 2010, 29 tonnes of food were collected and 33
tonnes delivered... which equates to 78,000 meals!
When those figures are set against the statistic that in the UK
over four million people cannot afford to eat a healthy diet, it
shows just how essential the work of FareShare nationally, and
organisations such as the DCFA, really are.
FareShare SW has contacts far and wide... they are about to
begin deliveries to Weston-Super-Mare and they receive
regular donations from a monastery in Camarthen!
We were pleased to receive lots of advice that’ll help with our
work in Devon and Cornwall and we look forward to regular
visits to FareShare South West in Bristol in the future.
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT?An article by Hazel ALEXANDER...
a Co-opted Member to the DCFA Board of
Trustees
T’S AT THIS TIME OF YEAR that many of us are thinking
about our waist.
This is usually because the turkey and all the delicious seasonal
trimmings have well and truly come home to roost and have
perched themselves very firmly anywhere from our ribs down!
But instead... I’d like you to think a little bit about waste!
Often when manufacturers produce or package foods ready for
shops and supermarkets there’s a surplus and currently this
perfectly good food goes to landfill and this is happening whilst
local organisations are trying to provide food for people in
difficult circumstances. DCFA wants to get this food to those
organisations, but to do it, we will need your help!
If you have some time to help us share this spare food out to
these organisations we’d love to hear from you! There are a
variety of tasks you can get involved with, just get in touch with
Geoff (contact details at the top of Page 1) and we can tell you
a bit more about us and what we’re hoping to do.
Meanwhile, I’m off to work out how many calories
volunteering burns an hour!
WWOOUULLDD YYOOUURR OORRGGAANNIISSAATTIIOONN
BBEENNEEFFIITT FFRROOMM AA
TTAALLKK && PPOOWWEERRPPOOIINNTT
PPRREESSEENNTTAATTIIOONN??
AArree yyoouu aa sscchhooooll,, aa cchhaarriittyy,, aa f f aaiitthh
ggrroouupp oorr ssoommee ootthheerr oorrggaanniissaattiioonn
nneeeeddiinngg ttoo kknnooww mmoorree aabboouutt
DDCCFFAA??
WWee wwiillll ccoommee ttoo yyoouu aanndd f f iivvee aa
bbrriieef f ttaallkk aanndd PPoowweerrPPooiinntt
PPrreesseennttaattiioonn ttoo tteellll yyoouu
aabboouutt oouurr wwoorrkk..
JJuusstt ccoonnttaacctt GGeeoof f f f ......
c c oonnt t aac c t t d d eet t aai i l l ss aat t
t t hhee t t oopp oof f P P aaggee 11..
BBooookk nnooww!!
T
I
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TRAINING & COURSES
AST CORNWALL COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICES
(ECCVS) is one of three organisations that employ anInter-Link Development Officer. Inter-Link Cornwall is a
project which is designed to link members of community-
based groups with each other and with workers from
statutory agencies to help them to work together, and
therefore give a better service to the members of their
communities. Inter-Link Officers arrange locality meetings,
training events and produce a newsletter to enable
information to be distributed to its members. Our DCFA
Secretary, Geoff, recently attended one such Locality
Meeting in Liskeard and found it ideal for networking.
For more information please contact Grayburn OWEN at:
OCIAL ENTERPRISE WORKSHOPS AND ONE-TO-ONE
BUSINESS ADVICE CLINICS. These workshops and clinics
are being offered FREE by Co-active Ltd.
Plymouth advice clinics:
Book a one-hour slot for a clinic between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.:
Tuesday, 8th
March 2011
For more details and to book your place please contact:
Marie WHITE
Telephone: 0845 519 5759(9.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays)
Business Services
PO Box 36
Newton Abbot TQ13 0WP
Co-active Ltd. Registered in England
(company registration no. 2050566)
Registered office:
26-28 Southernhay East,
Exeter EX1 1NS
http://www.co-active.org.uk
DDOO YYOOUU WWIISSHH TTOO BBEECCOOMMEE AA
FFRRIIEENNDD OOFF DDCCFFAA??
GGoo oonn--lliinnee,, ddoowwnnllooaadd tthhee AApppplliiccaattiioonn
FFoorrmm,, ccoommpplleettee tthhee ddeettaaiillss
aanndd ssuubbmmiitt iitt ttoo GGeeoof f f f ..
OTHER NEWS
HE LAST THING OUR HUNGRY WORLD NEEDS IS MORE
FOOD! By Fred Pearce. This article was published on
the Mail On-line on Sunday, 6th
February 2011:
'Every time there is a famine, it turns out later that someone,
usually just down the road, was hoarding food for sale,' said
Fred PEARCE.Government chief scientist Sir John
BEDDINGTON calls it the perfect
storm. Soaring world population,
coupled with climate change, is set to
create a world food crisis and leave
billions starving.
'We are at a unique moment in
history,' he said recently, while
launching a report from his
Government think-tank, Foresight.
The Foresight project, Global Food &
Farming Futures, says only arevolution in the way the world grows
its food can save us. Clearly, David
CAMERON'S top boffin wants to kick-start that revolution.The world's population will reach seven billion this year and may peak at
nine billion by mid-century. There are plenty of things wrong with the
world's food system. But the amount of food it produces isn't one of them.
We already grow enough food to nourish nine billion people, probably
15billion people, in fact, for we eat only about one third of those crops.
Much of the global harvest feeds livestock... an inefficient route for
delivering our nutrition, since it takes eight calories of grain to produce
one calorie of meat.
Plenty more is diverted to make biofuels. An African could live for a year
on the corn needed to fill one gas-guzzling SUV fuel tank with ethanol.
That's not all. In the developing world, an estimated 30% of the harvest
is eaten by rats and insects, or rots in grain silos. We in the First World
are better at preventing losses, but then we throw about 25% our food
away, uneaten.
The truth is that the world's farmers could probably double the amount
of food they grow... using GM crops and other technologies... and still
people would go hungry. This is ultimately not about production or
about human numbers, it is about poverty.
Every time there’s a famine, it turns out later that someone, usually just
down the road, was hoarding food for sale. The problem is that the
hungry families didn't have the cash to buy it.
Every few years we get news reports that there are only so many days'
supply of grain in the world's warehouses. If the warehouses are full,
prices fall and farmers stop producing. When they start to empty, prices
rise, farmers start planting and soon the warehouses are full again.
BEDDINGTON'S perfect storm is the operation of a perfect market. Does
this mis-diagnosis matter? Even if we grow enough food, surely growingmore can't hurt.
Well, yes, it does matter. Because BEDDINGTON'S planned revolution
stands a good chance of making the poor poorer. It could mean we have
both more food and more famines. This is because most of the methods
he suggests to increase food production are about big farms and big
investment.
Government chief scientist Sir John BEDDINGTON'S planned revolution
could mean we have both more food and more famines.
BEDDINGTON wants to plough up vast tracts of African cattle pastures and
amalgamate the smallholdings of millions of peasant farmers to create
giant, high-tech farms. His blueprint will take land away from the rural
poor.
Last month, I watched this scenario playing out on the edge of the Sahara
desert in Mali. The government there has recruited foreign experts to help
it invest in agriculture. Western aid agencies are building irrigation projectsto boost production of rice.
E
S
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Libya's Colonel GADDAFI, Mali's biggest sugar daddy, has just dug a 25-mile
canal to irrigate an area of dry scrub three times the size of the Isle of
Wight.
The trouble is that these projects will take water out of the River Niger.
They will empty fertile wet pastures just downstream, where one million of
Mali's poorest people currently live by catching fish and grazing their
cattle. They fear the plans will create desert.
Most of the rice from the new fields will go to feed Libyans. Meanwhile,
the poor of the Niger wetlands are likely to join the Al-Qaeda groups
already penetrating the country's desert borders.
BEDDINGTON is right that farming needs investment. But it has to be the
right investment. Perhaps he should have a word with another of theGovernment's scientific advisers, Professor Robert WATSON, the real
Whitehall food expert.
He is currently chief scientist at the Department for Environment Food and
Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Three years ago he chaired an international report
on the future of the world's farming.
In the developing world, an estimated 30% of the harvest is eaten by rats
and insects, or rots in grain silos.
WATSON reached rather different conclusions from BEDDINGTON.
He said African smallholder farmers should be backed, not stripped of their
land; that local knowledge of crops would often work better than high-tech
methods; and that fighting poverty was the key to feeding the world.
WATSON told me: 'It's not a technical challenge; it's a rural development
challenge. Small farmers will remain the predominant producers. The
question is how to help them.'
BEDDINGTON sees the spread of Western farming methods and giant foodand seed companies as the solution to the food problem.
WATSON sees it as part of the problem. BEDDINGTON'S report says: 'We
need to make agriculture more efficient.'
But more efficient for whom? For agribusiness and its bottom line? Or for
farmers and consumers? In an age where the smart investment banks are
putting their cash into biofuels rather than bread, and where large
corporations are buying farms across the developing world to grow cotton
for cash rather than food for people, the two are not the same thing.
BEDDINGTON'S report chastises countries such as India, which imposed
bans on food exports during the food price crisis in early 2008 in an effort
to keep their people fed.
He blames them for undoubtedly exacerbating the crisis, and says such
protectionist actions should be banned. He has no such strictures for the
speculators who caused the soaring prices.
Surely if we've learned anything over the past couple of years, it is that
unbridled markets can bring chaos, and speculators are a menace. It was
bad enough letting the financial markets run riot. But if the food markets
run riot we will have empty bellies as well as empty pockets.
Peoplequake by Fred PEARCE, is published by Eden Project
Books at £8.99.
To order your copy at £8.49 with free p&p, call The Review
Bookstore on 08451550713 or visit www.MailLife.co.uk/Books.
Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353810/Beddingtons-perfect-
storm-Last-thing-hungry-world-needs-food.html#ixzz1DUxiHhcr
Contributed by Andy HAWKINS, DCFA Trustee
WWOOUULLDD YYOOUURR OORRGGAANNIISSAATTIIOONN
BBEENNEEFFIITT FFRROOMM AA
TTAALLKK && PPOOWWEERRPPOOIINNTT
PPRREESSEENNTTAATTIIOONN??
AArree yyoouu aa sscchhooooll,, aa cchhaarriittyy,, aa f f aaiitthh
ggrroouupp oorr ssoommee ootthheerr oorrggaanniissaattiioonn
nneeeeddiinngg ttoo kknnooww mmoorree aabboouutt
DDCCFFAA??
WWee wwiillll ccoommee ttoo yyoouu aanndd f f iivvee aa
bbrriieef f ttaallkk aanndd PPoowweerrPPooiinntt
PPrreesseennttaattiioonn ttoo tteellll yyoouu aabboouutt oouurr wwoorrkk..
JJuusstt ccoonnttaacctt GGeeoof f f f ......
c c oonnt t aac c t t d d eet t aai i l l ss aat t
t t hhee t t oopp oof f P P aaggee 11..
BBooookk nnooww!!
The Devon &Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA) is a Private Company Limited by Guarantee.
Registered Company Number: 07419679. Registered Charity Number: Pending.
Members of : NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations) PTSC The Plymouth Third Sector Consortium),
And The Small Charities Coalition.
Our Funder:
....And Voluntary Donations...