Our Organisational Structure
Our Trustees
Sarah Avery
Sarah has been working within the charity sector for the last 20 years.
As a response to the Covid pandemic she set up the award winning #FeedCheltenham and now through her own venture, “Be a Good Neighbour continues to work with local charities and organisations to help them meet the needs of their local communities through support services and activities.
Sarah is excited to be a part of Feeding Gloucestershire and knows the positive impact we can have to impact food poverty within Gloucestershire.
Helen Hutchings
Helen qualified as a Solicitor in 2006 at a local firm in Cheltenham, before moving to London where she spent her early career working in the IT industry and more recently, the financial services sector.
Helen moved back to Gloucestershire in 2021 with her husband and two young children and is excited to become a Trustee of Feeding Gloucestershire and use her skills and expertise to support and shape the charity going forward.
Emma Keating Clark
Emma is the Community Health and Wellbeing Manager for Stroud District Council with 19 years of working in community development in the Stroud District.
Emma works closely with statutory, voluntary and community sector colleagues to improve wellbeing and has a particular passion for tackling rural inequalities.
Emma‘s favourite things are family, food and football.
Corrie Sissons
Corrie is a Gloucestershire local, having grown up in Cheltenham. Corrie has 12 years of experience in humanitarian food security programming and is a Food Security and Markets Technical Advisor for American NGO Catholic Relief Services’ in their Humanitarian Response Team. She has worked in in DR Congo, Mali, Guinea, Iraq, Greece, Niger, South Sudan and Bangladesh on humanitarian food security programs.
Corrie speaks French, Spanish and German and holds a Masters from the London School of Oriental and African Studies. She currently lives in Nailsworth.
Steve Townsend
Steve studied at Hartpury and Brackenhurst before beginning his career in agriculture. He has worked with RHM and Kenneth Wilson, and for 4yrs he headed up Monsanto’s, UK Conservation Agriculture initiative (Ecotillage).
For the last 26 years, Steve has been working with farmers advising them on Conservation Agriculture & Re-generative agricultural systems in the UK, Ireland & Europe – to help farmer’s produce more profit by improving their soil’s structure, biodiversity and fertility. In 2012 he started BASE-UK a farmer information exchange group on Conservation technique’s & experiences.
Steve is married to Sharon and has four daughters, he is keen no-dig/no raised bed gardener and hobby farmer, and he occasionally keeps sheep and pigs.
Network Coordinator – Deb Baker
Deb is a grassroots community organiser and trainer (specialising in community organising and creative wellbeing) whose organisation, Community Roots CIC, was one of the catalysts for Feeding Gloucestershire, she has been with Feeding Gloucestershire since April 2021 and became network coordinator in April 2022.
Deb has served in various committee roles, including Membership Secretary, Education Coordinator, Secretary, Press and Public Relations Officer, and Chair. Her business experience includes running her own business as a sole trader, Operational Manager for a local fine art foundry, and she is also the Finance and Administration Manager for Community Roots CIC.
In November 2021 Deb designed and led a program of organisational conversations for the Gloucestershire Food and Farming Partnership. These conversations, with organisations across the county who are involved in food work, have informed the work of both the Gloucestershire Food and Farming Partnership and Feeding Gloucestershire.
Project Manager – Lizzie Dyer
Lizzie lives on a farm in Cricklade, having been brought up on a farm, food and farming and the countryside has been a huge influence on her life. She moved from Somerset to Gloucestershire in 2010 to study at the Royal Agricultural University, achieving a first-class honours degree in ‘International Agricultural Business Management’. The last thirteen years she has been working on farms in the County and established her own farming business in 2013 – Just Kidding (AKA Cotswold Kid Meat) – with her partner Jamie.
Previously Lizzie has worked in event management and both the finance and charity sectors. She started work in 2019 for the Gloucestershire Good Food Revolution (now known as the Gloucestershire Food and Farming Partnership) on various projects from food procurement, sustainable food places and community conversations. She has been working with Feeding Gloucestershire since April 2022 as Project Manager.
The Network Organisations
The aim of Feeding Gloucestershire is to bring together a network of organisations across the county who’s work is connected to food, including community food support, community growing, producers and local authorities. This network will be invaluable resource enabling Feeding Gloucestershire to connect into, and support, the work that is happening across the county from grassroots to countywide, ensuring voices are heard and resources and knowledge are shared.
In line with our Integrated Local Delivery Framework the network coordinator and project manager will facilitate at district level, working to ensure the districts are represented in all our work.