Our food environment: vital signs, its impact on our lives and what needs to change to support us all to eat healthily and sustainably
Author: Sarah Avery
Sustainable Food Places
Through the power of partnerships, we aim to make healthy and sustainable food a defining characteristic of where people live
The State of the Nations Food Industry
Which retailers and Out of Home businesses are leading the way in supporting a shift towards more healthy and sustainable diets?
Longlevens Community Food Swap
Community Food Swap
Swap and share your homegrown/made produce.
Do you have a surplus of fruit or veggies? Why not swap them for produce you don’t have!
A community food swap is a fun, free way to share fruit, vegetables, herbs, seeds, flowers, preserves, eggs, baked goods and other homemade products!
Our 2024 Food Swaps will be at 10am on
June 8th
July 13th
August 10th
September 14th
Money and Pensions Service
The aim of the Money and Pension Service (MaPS) is to help people – particularly those most in need – to improve their financial wellbeing and build a better, more confident future. Working collaboratively across the UK, we make sure customers can access high-quality money and pensions guidance and debt advice throughout their lives, how and when they need it.
Feeding Gloucestershire recently hosted a workshop to introduce organisations across the county to the services offered by MaPS. A recording of the workshop can be found on our YouTube channel
MaPS offer a range of help leaflets including –
Making the Most of your Money Guide
Credit Unions and Alternatives to High Cost Credit
Money Advisor Network – Accessing free, regulated Debt Advice
For more information visit their website
Changes to our membership and a new directory
Following on from our district launches and recent conversations, we have decided to move away from being a membership network and become a more open informal network. The decision has been taken as we were concerned that by offering membership only benefits, we were excluding organisations that could benefit. Our current membership offer will now be an open offer to organisations across the county.
We will be changing the members page on our website to become a directory and adding a directory map. We will welcome organisations and businesses who share the ethos of Feeding Gloucestershire and invite them to become a part of the directory.
The aim is for the directory and the map is for them to become tools for highlighting the work that is happening across the county and as a general resource for organisations and people. These changes offer an opportunity to map the wider food landscape and we would like to welcome farmers, producers, hospitality and other food related businesses and organisations to become part of the directory.
We will begin implementing these changes on the 1st of November and if you would like to be listed on the map please fill in our form here
GREAT Food Gloucestershire
Exciting news
Feeding Gloucestershire are currently working with Jenny (Sustainable Food Places Gloucestershire) to bring to life the GREAT Food Gloucestershire Campaign which will be hosted on our website.
We will update on progress through our social media.
Cheltenham District Launch
We started June with our 4th launch, held at the Pavillion in Cheltenham. We had a wonderful mix of people representing all sectors and the launch highlighted the partnership working that is already happening across the borough.
Our speakers included Kelly Patterson of Cheltenham Brough Council, who updated us on how the council is supporting initiatives across the district – from Feed Cheltenham to Cheltenham Zero. Linda Grice told us about the work of Feed Cheltenham and the food network. Claire Dovey spoke to us about the new growing movement that has begun in Cheltenham and Raechel Kelly told us about the work Vision 21, Planet Cheltenham and Cheltenham Zero are doing to promote sustainable living in Cheltenham and beyond.
A fantastic buffet lunch was provided by Faith of Springbank Community Group, and after lunch we had some breakout sessions to discuss the work already happening in the borough, the opportunities available and challenges we face.
We are now working to bring together the feedback from the launch, but the things that have stood out so far are –
- More events that give us the opportunity to connect and share
- Connecting the work across the county and learning about other projects
- Exploring the wider opportunities to work together
- More connection between the food support network, growing projects and the sustainability movement.
- Mapping what is already happening and identifying the gaps.
once again our thanks go to those who were able to join us
Here is the information and learning from this event – Cheltenham Launch
Gloucester District Launch
For our second district launch we were in Gloucester. Our thanks go to Dawn from The Venture: White City for helping us to arrange this event – from arranging the venue, to bringing the Eat Well Wagon and providing lunch. For those who have not heard of the Eat Well Wagon, it is a mobile kitchen and a wonderful community resource that has been making appearances across Gloucester during HAF.
Additional thanks go to Clare from Gloucestershire Gateway Trust and Gloucester Services for providing a taster table of delicious food from local producers.
During the event Leanne Purnell (Gloucester City Council wellbeing team) told us about the work that has been done on ‘Nourishing Gloucester – Gloucester City Food Strategy’.
We also spent time discussing the work that has been happening across the city and the challenges and opportunities to make change for the communities of Gloucester City and the county. Conversations were rich and varied and attendees left considering who else should be a part of the conversation we started at the launch.
Our thanks go to everyone who was able to join us for the launch.
Here is the link to the information and learning from this event – Gloucester Launch
Tewkesbury Borough Launch
Tewkesbury was our penultimate launch, our venue was Churchdown Community Centre and our delicious lunch, which featured local produce including lovely strawberries served with vegan cream, was created by Emma of The Welcome Table Cafe.
The launch was the opportunity to hear from Jenny, the county’s Sustainable Food Places coordinator, about the work of Sustainable Food Places and the benefits for our county and Andy Sanders told us about the work of the Borough Council and the support they can offer community organisations.
Our first breakout session focused on acknowledging what is already happening across the borough and what is working well – from food pantries and food banks to warm spaces, and we also worked to identify gaps.
Our second breakout looked at how we could build a thriving food movement in the borough with a view to creating a food strategy and we also considered who else should be a part of this conversation.
Our thanks to those who were able to join us for this launch, we look forward to working with you and others across the district.
