Beyond Food Banks: Developing Community

Responses to Food Poverty in the Lancaster

District

Introduction

This report summarises the progress made by a partnership approach to tackling

food poverty locally. It sets out the context for this work, and the outcomes from

the conference in June 2014 which was organised by the Sustainable Food City

Lancaster Steering Group (SFCL SG).

The aim of the report is to help the conference participants to continue to work

together, to follow up the action plans, access funding or other resources, and

influence others to help deliver solutions to food poverty. The report may also be

useful to other SFC groups around the country who want to take action on this

issue.

“There is no magic wand and change will only be realised by us all taking

actions and working together to make a difference.”

– Cllr Gina Dowding, Sustainable Food City Lancaster

Background

Throughout the UK, people have recognised the key role food can play in dealing

with some of today’s most pressing social, economic and environmental problems.

From obesity and diet-related ill-health to food poverty and waste, climate change

and biodiversity loss to declining prosperity and social dislocation, food is not only

at the heart of some of our greatest problems, but also a vital part of the solution.

Food can act as the vehicle for driving positive change and the promotion of

sustainable food will benefit people and the planet. The Sustainable Food Cities

Network, which is an alliance of public, private and third sector organisations aims

to support local communities to explore practical solutions and develop best

practice in all aspects of sustainable food.

The SFCL SG was set up after a successful launch event in May 2013. The steering

group decided to focus on catalysing action to tackle food poverty, because of the

rapid growth in demand for emergency food aid, and concern that many people are

unable to access healthy, affordable food, for a wide variety of personal and

political reasons. As a result, many people are suffering from hunger, malnutrition,

obesity and other health problems. The SG wanted to focus on local action that

could make a positive difference recognising however that some causes of food

poverty require a national government response.

The Department of Health defines Food Poverty as "the inability to afford, or to

have access to, food to make up a healthy diet."

In late 2013 we consulted the SFC launch event participants on the idea of holding

a local food poverty conference, and asked for suggestions for topics, desired

outcomes, workshops/presentations and people to invite. The responses confirmed

that there is a need for more joined-up approach to ensure that vulnerable people

are supported to step out of food poverty. We want to give people “a hand up, not

a hand out”!

There are already many initiatives in the Lancaster District which are responding to

this issue, including several food banks, homeless action centres, advice networks,

community food growing projects, community cafés and healthy eating initiatives.

‘Beyond Food Banks’ Conference

The conference was held on 12 June 2014 in Lancaster Town Hall and was attended

by 48 people. Present were people from a range of backgrounds; health visitors,

ministers, volunteers, library managers, homeless action, community growers,

academics, councillors and more. Other invitees who did not attend included both

local MPs, cabinet members from Lancaster City Council and Lancashire County

Council, and representatives from all of the schools in the Lancaster District.

Efforts were made to enable participation by people with direct personal

experience of food poverty, but it was not possible to identify people who were in

a position to engage with a conference of this nature.

The event was funded by Lancashire County Council (public health grant) and

Lancaster City Council (free venue), and chaired by County Cllr Gina Dowding. The

administration was done by Tom Fyson from LESS, using EventBrite. A tasty lunch

(soups, bread, cakes and fruit) was provided by Lancaster Soupdragon.

The programme can be found in Appendix A. The day began with six short

presentations to set the scene. Each speaker was asked to briefly cover: (1) what is

already happening locally to tackle food poverty; (2) what are the gaps; and (3)

any plans/ideas/suggestions for moving beyond food banks.

The invited speakers were:

• Cath Willis from the Olive Branch - runs a Food Bank in Lancaster.

• Rev. Phil Hudd from Christ Church - runs a night shelter for homeless people and is

interested in developing a ‘social supermarket’ where people can access and choose

affordable food (could include provision of vouchers from referral agencies).

• Linda Smalley & Viv Preece, community growers – involved with Incredible

Edible Lancaster, Fruity Corners, Claver Hill, The Plot in Morecambe, etc.

• Yak Patel from the Marsh Community Centre - involved in food growing,

developing a community cafe, and provision of affordable fresh fruit & veg. (Unfortunately Yak was unable to attend on the day so Emily Heath spoke on his behalf.)

• Mike Berners-Lee, Small World Consulting - works with Booths supermarket, and

author of a recent report on a Sustainable Food System for Manchester.

• Amanda Donnelly, Food For Life Partnership – works with schools and other

settings on transformi

• ng food culture through changing procurement practices, practical cooking and growing,

and linking to local farms.

Some of the speakers are pictured below:

We then divided into groups to brainstorm ideas starting with

‘Wouldn’t it be great if …… ?’

The specific themes and group facilitators were:

1. Beyond food aid – root causes, referrals, support Hugh Kidd

2. Social supermarkets Clare Platt

3. Better access to fresh food Tom Fyson

4. Cooking and budgeting skills Samagita Moisha

5. Supermarket food waste Emily Heath

6. Childhood and mother nutrition Caroline Jackson

Ideas from the brainstorming can be found in Appendix B and have been grouped

into themes. Each group was asked to identify at least one short-term and one

long-term action to take forward to the afternoon’s action planning session. Over

lunch, two of the facilitators looked through all of the suggested actions and

identified the six best ones to focus on in the afternoon.

Action Planning

The focus for the afternoon was to develop action plans for some of the actions

recommended by the morning discussion groups.

Each group had the same facilitators as in the morning. The groups were given an

action planning sheet to complete, which recorded:

• Overall aim

• Participants

• List of actions, with who will lead on each one and when by

• Notes about resources, information or contacts needed

A summary of the outcomes from each group is given below, along with a key

contact person for each group.

1. Action plan for developing a community (web-based) resource for providers

Key contact person: Hugh Kidd, hkadmin@phonecoop.coop

Contacts, resources and networks need pulling together. This issue was clearly articulated on several occasions by several people - there is no good, up-to-date list of local contacts and resources for use when making referrals. It makes it very difficult to refer people according to their needs to someone able to help them. The group was aware that there is a CAN Project, based at Lancaster Citizens Advice is working to pull something together. But it was unclear what the CAN project is doing, what it might achieve and when that might be.

Actions

• People from this group would contact CAN to find out more. The CAN Project is being run by Stephen Read-Moore based at North Lancashire Citizens Adice Bureau. Telephone: 01524 400404 or email stephen@northlancashirecab.org.uk

• It would be useful if email contacts for all attendees at the conference are circulated. They constitute a range of people currently involved in food poverty who are not necessarily in contact with each other. It is a start for a more comprehensive list.

• Val from Lancaster & Morecambe College (see contact list in appendix) is able to offer a room to get interested people together to build a resource.

2. Action plan for first steps towards Social Supermarkets

Key contact person: Jacqueline Stamper j.stamper@btinternet.com 01524 64083

The group focussed on the need for and opportunities to develop a Social

Supermarket in the Lancaster and Morecambe Area. A groups of interested people

has committed to meeting and progressing this work.

3. Action plan for Soup Week - Soup is Life-Changing!

Key contact person: Cllr Caroline Jackson cjnmeadow@tiscali.co.uk

The group focused closely on possible practical ways of managing education to improve nutrition amongst those on low incomes and with limited cooking facilities, particularly wishing to influence younger people and young parents. Various key cooking skills were considered and the group decided that soup making was a simple way to give people confidence and good cheap food. We agreed that opportunities for fun, digital media and plenty of publicity were essential - hence Soup Week. 4. Action plan for developing a system for getting food waste from

supermarkets to people in food poverty

Key contact person: Cllr Liz Scott lscott@lancaster.gov.uk

A medium-term aim is to do a feasibility study for setting up a local coordination system (or ideally 2 separate systems for Lancaster & Morecambe) to make it as easy as possible for supermarkets and organisations to help each other. We need to learn from successful models elsewhere (e.g. FareShare and FoodCycle), and find out what funding may be available. But first we need to establish whether there is demand for this locally. Short term actions were agreed to:

• Research which supermarkets are already donating food and who to approach about expanding this locally

• Find out which local organisations are interested in accepting food - particularly perishable food that is close to its use-by date – from supermarkets.

• Report back on what has already been discussed at a recent meeting between Booths supermarket, the Olive Branch, Lancaster District Homeless Action Service and the Ark (St Thomas’s).

5. Action plan for cooking & budgeting - coordinating suppliers, skills, facilities,

funding, bidding etc. and minimising duplication

Key contact person: Jane Attfield janeattfield@lancastercvs.org.uk

The group recognised that there are already a number of people in the area doing

very good work teaching cooking and budgeting skills. Bringing these people

together to share skills and resources, strengthen their work and develop a shared

plan forward is the first move. This would also make projects visible to one

another and prevent duplication. Our group agreed to create a shared list of who

to invite to an event in Morecambe library in October. We are looking to

possibilities to expand and develop what exists already maybe through sharing

facilities and resources, maybe through shared funding bids for wider teaching and

resources. The autonomy of each existing project was seen to be important - we

wish to create an effective network - not a homogenous quango. An additional

action is that Viv of Incredible Edibles will look to start and Abundance project

locally. This is about making use of glut fruits and veg by the organised collective

sharing of produce.

6. Action plan for all schools to embed food growing and link with community.

Key contact person: Tom Fyson, tom@lessuk.org

The goal is to see food growing activities happening in all schools across the

district. This should be embedded into the curriculum to ensure all children can

take part, not just as an after school club activity.

LESS will produce case studies of their existing work within schools and use this to

demonstrate the benefits of adopting a whole school approach. The Area Education

Team will be approached to help get the message out to the decision makers

through the Governors portal and the head teachers' forum. A longer term goal is

to have the Food for Life Partnership commissioned in Lancashire and to work with

partners to support all schools to transform their food culture.

Conclusion

The conference was very successful at bringing people together to discuss ideas,

initiate new projects and enable more effective partnership working in the future.

The mix of short presentations, discussions and action planning worked well, and

there was a very positive and energetic ‘buzz’ in the room throughout the day.

Most participants chose to stay for the whole day, and were therefore able to input

into action plans. Some of the action plans were quite detailed and identified who

would do what and when by. Others mainly identified the need for more

information to be gathered and shared about what is already happening and how

different services could be more joined up. A month after the conference, at least

two of the groups had made good progress with implementing their action plans

and had already met again to discuss this.

Appendices:

A: Conference Programme

B: Ideas generated by the morning brainstorming session

APPENDIX A: Conference Programme.

Beyond Food Banks:

developing community responses to food

poverty in the Lancaster district.

Thursday 12th June 2014

Lancaster Town Hall - Banqueting Suite

Programme

9.30 Registration - tea and coffee

10.00 Welcome and introduction

Gina Dowding, member of SFC Lancaster and County Councillor.

10.30 Presentations to map the current situation and introduce possible ways forward

Kath Willis – Olive Branch – emergency food

Yak Patel – Marsh Community Centre, hidden food poverty

Rev Phil Hudd – Christ Church – social supermarkets

Viv Preece/Linda Smalley – Community growing projects

Mike Berners Lee – Small World Consulting – supermarkets and waste

Amanda Donnelly – Food for Life Partnership

11.30 Break for refreshments

11.45 Discussion groups to explore the possibilities as widely as possible

12.45 Lunch - a simple meal of bread and soup, fruit or cake will be provided. During the lunch break all participants will have the opportunity to select which of the wide ranging ideas arising from the morning will be taken forward into the afternoon session.

1.30 Structured action planning session to identify concrete practical steps to be taken to move forward with the prioritised projects from the morning session.

3.00 Plenary session on action points and requests.

3.30 Close

APPENDIX B: IDEAS GENERATED BY THE MORNING BRAINSTORMING SESSION

1. BEYOND FOOD AID - ROOT CAUSES, REFERRALS, SUPPORT

Wouldn't it be great if …

• Names of organisations stay the same

• Very visible, clearly signposted services, easy access (Brighthouse style)

• De-fragment � central referral Hub for professionals, like A&E themes

• Community Advice Network extended, streamlined, developed

• Long term vision (funding) and sustaining projects & skills

• More life skills training in the district

• Agencies make more inter-agency referrals

• Network – contact book/website

• Personalised service

Contributing factors to the root causes:

• Culture, consumerism, modern society • Powerful companies • Advertising, marketing, profit before people • Benefit issues: welfare reforms, delays • Employment: limited jobs, zero hours, wages • Mental health • Low life skills • Substance misuse • Shortage of affordable/social housing • Fuel costs • Food costs • Second, third generation culture • Easy access to HP, credit, debt & loans • Difficult to access good help with money management • Pressure for everything to run as a 'business model' • Squeezed: reductions in public services, welfare services & voluntary sector

Key partners:

L&M College, Schools, CAN Project at CAB 01524 400 4104, Community engagement office,

Morecambe direction, HelpDirect, SFC, County Council

Outreach to other partners, clients and volunteers via:

Wellbeing directory (web-based), Public Libraries, Email, Facebook, Family noticeboard,

Bay radio

ACTIONS TO TAKE FORWARD

Short term: Establish a better network of advice with clear available resources & signposting Long term: A long term vision and thinking

2. SOCIAL SUPERMARKETS

Wouldn't it be great if …

a. Social justice

• City Council supported 'justice' by taking responsibility/ accountability/ financial

governance - target resources to address needs

• Our MPs tried to live on benefits for 1 month in private rented housing

• Focus for connectedness, justice, resilience, community and cultural development,

empowerment � hot bed of activism!

b. Practicalities

• Think 21st Century – combine with IT hub? Community hub?

• Councils took responsibility for empty units � allow use by community

• Thought of as "just another shop" (access for all)

• Access shop in Penny Street – prime location

• Shop supports educational placements/training/outreach

• Grow sustainable networks of outlets

• Alternative economy incorporated

• Increase access to fresh and local food (grown on public/church land?)

• Could connect up across admin boundaries eg. Councils/regions….

ACTIONS TO TAKE FORWARD

Short term

• Form a steering group, identify seed funding opportunities

Long term

• Aim to open one or more community supermarkets in the right places,

accessible to people, secure lease

3. BETTER ACCESS TO FRESH FOOD

Wouldn't it be great if …

a. It was all joined up!

b. We could expand local food growing through:

• Community supported agriculture

• Matching up schools & allotment/community food projects

• Growing for school kitchens

• Engaging social landlords e.g. crop swaps, roof top gardens

• Food growing to use land

• All street trees fruit and nut

• Embed in school curriculum

• Plan what to grow where in district – micro climate for different crops

c. Community cohesion was promoted through:

• Food celebration

• Collaborative consumption – community meal sharing

• Care homes support e.g. dementia sensory/herb gardens

• Employee volunteer programmes – supported by employers

• Community kitchens - accessible training, cooking, food preserving

d. We could shorten fresh food supply chains through:

• Local produce convenient & affordable to all

• Local & sustainable criteria in public sector contracts

• e.g. 500+ schools, hospitals, care homes, universities, etc

• Allotments links to social schemes to distribute surplus – social return in lease

agreement

• Connection to farmers/produce

ACTIONS TO TAKE FORWARD

By group: Work to embed food growing in the curriculum of all schools with

links to school kitchens, networking between schools and links to wider local

community.

By SFC Lancashire: ensure the county wide charter currently being

developed includes criteria for locally sourced products within public sector

contracts.

4 COOKING AND BUDGETING SKILLS/FACILITIES

Wouldn't it be great if …

a. Skill sharing

• Develop an area-wide certificate for Children's Food Hygiene

• Volunteers from schools, colleges, uni etc offer skills to support projects

• Kitchen facilities in public sector open to local people/community when not in use

• Bank of partners wanting to offer skills, facilities, resources

• Skilling up people to use fresh fruit & vegetables competently

• We could give the credit unions more resources to go out and promote

• Enabling confidence to use what's available

• One person to go on budgeting course & then cascade down to others

• Educate primary school age to prepare simple healthy & cheap meals – enthuse

parents through kids

• Giving socially isolated older people with skills to contribute to skilling and helping

others

• Local people with food surplus, time & skills to donate made up meals

• Local businesses donate time to educate schools on food preparation

• Everyone had access to budgeting skills at all venues

b. Awareness and education

• Inform people of what is available locally, where & when (paper directory, web-

based …)

• Supermarket £5 & £10 meals and instructions for preparation

• No advertising for McDonalds/KFC etc

• Develop fast food options that are healthy, accessible and cheap

• Libraries were a key facility for info and events around food

• There was a really good local awareness campaign to get volunteers/partners & the

clients together using services

• Ask people what they want

c. Abundance

• Develop a network of food hubs so gluts can be shared

• Preserve food so it is long life/storable e.g. tomato sauce & chutney

• There was an organisation like ABUNDANCE in this area?

ACTIONS TO TAKE FORWARD

Short Term

• Link together as a coordinated approach: suppliers, skills, facilities,

funding bids. Work together as a branded partnership to avoid

duplication

• Develop a network for sharing info on who provides what, and

coordinate what's available

Long Term

• Develop cheap, healthy fast food & fashionable outlets, community-

run, in Lancaster and Morecambe.

• Could link to local food growing, sharing skills and facilities,

apprenticeships, celebrity sponsorship, one-stop shop, etc

4. SUPERMARKET FOOD WASTE

Wouldn't it be great if…

a. Using perishable food quickly

• Find out what Food Banks and Homeless Action Centres want/need

• Provide evening access to food (via social supermarket?) or evening meals using that

day’s food waste

• Minimise risk of food poisoning – liability issues

• Plenty of freezer storage available

• Turn fresh ingredients into soup etc. Could use school kitchens, freeze surplus, give

to homeless people

• Creative chef(s) – offer cooking skills to others

• Community cafes – will needy people use them? Difficult to make viable

• Community led grass roots engagement

b. Getting supermarkets on board

• Encourage supermarkets to match donations to food banks from their customers –

“buy one give one free”

• Need to make it easy for supermarkets to participate

• Need coordinating body – e.g. Fareshare (Manchester).

• Would require:

o Money – set up and running costs

o Resources - person & deputy, phone, website, transport, storage space

o Contacts - HACs, food banks, caterers, cooking classes, social supermkt.

• Scaleability - start small – e.g. work with Booths first – 1 store then expand to all?

Develop proposal to discuss with them.

ACTIONS TO TAKE FORWARD

Short Term

• Develop pilot proposal to discuss with Booths (try to identify barriers

for them & overcome them)

• Encourage supermarkets to offer 'buy one give one free' schemes for

food to donate to food banks, homeless action, etc.

Long Term

• Set up coordinating body to take food waste & quickly redistribute to

orgs.

6. CHILDHOOD & MOTHER NUTRITION

Wouldn't it be great if …

• Healthy eating promoted in schools consistently

• Babies were breast fed more & mums had a better diet

• People knew what a balanced diet is! Literacy re quantity, type and quality

• Knowing how to shop on a low budget

• Parents knew how babies 'grow into' adult eating

• We had lots of 'cook and eat'

• Soup week including everyone – soup is life-changing

• Develop the Children's Centre role in food, nutrition and healthy growth

• Fleet of fast food buses

• Lancaster & Morecambe Benefits office is improved