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London Food Link
London Food Link Project Updates

Summer 2011


Planning is well underway for the summer Network Do scheduled for the end of July. New members joining in the last quarter include a mental health charity working with Food Cycle (another of our members); a Southwark restaurant; a blog focused on Hackney’s ethical restaurants and shops; market traders including Scottish wild game; and individuals ranging from allotment holders to Masters in Food Policy students.
 
This quarter’s Jellied Eel magazine investigated the sustainability credentials of those London businesses used by the royal family (to coincide with the Royal Wedding) and also included a piece on the surge in pop-up dining around the capital – temporary cafés and restaurants established for short periods of time and publicised by social networking.

We continue to sit on the London Food Board and the London Food Board Executive, supporting the development of healthy and sustainable food policy for the capital and working with the London Mayor’s food team. Sustain helped to draft and consult on the London Food Board’s ‘working definition’ of sustainable food and has helped with preparing the ‘refreshed’ Implementation Plan of the Mayor’s London Food Strategy, due for publication shortly. London Food Link is also beginning to examine how the network, and the London Food Board, can challenge mayoral candidates in the forthcoming election, to demonstrate how they will support healthy and sustainable food in 2012 and beyond.


Capital Growth

The campaign is now supporting over 1,080 spaces towards its target of 2,012 spaces by the end of 2012, meaning that the halfway stage has been achieved.

Capital Growth teamed up with B&Q on ‘Flash Grow’, an event in Trafalgar Square on the morning of 20 May, where 100,000 free tomato plants were handed out. Capital Growth banners and leaflets helped to promote the campaign and lots of volunteers sported Capital Growth T-shirts. Twenty-two Capital Growth spaces took part in the London Open Garden Squares Weekend on the weekend of 11/12 June, with promotional banners provided to each space. This will be followed by the Capital Growth Edible Open Gardens Day in September, where we will support sites to promote their spaces and raise funds through activities and sales.
 
‘An Evening for Growth’, a fundraising dinner at Café Spice Namaste, took place on 29 June, with several thousand pounds raised. Capital Growth also held a health-related networking on the evening of 19 July. This follows on from a seminar held in May with NHS professionals to identify good practice and relevant evidence. This well-attended seminar will form the basis of a briefing paper.

A further eight local organisations have been recruited to be Capital Growth Local Leads, so there are now 25 representing the project across 25 London boroughs. These local networks have started to send out regular information and organise events and activities at a local level, and already the feedback has been positive.
 
Capital Growth is encouraging groups to ‘Grow to Sell’, by providing ideas and mentoring. The team has also run stalls for smaller producers to try selling surplus produce.


Capital Bee

During April and May all seven training sites began training our 50 communities as new London beekeepers and most trainees are now happily immersed in their new roles.
The advertising campaign is finalised and includes postcards, posters on the London Underground, a website and an animated video. The campaign is now working towards the summer events, more networking, and the launch of the poster campaign in mid July (see cover).
 

Ethical Eats

The Ethical Eats network for restaurants and chefs interested in sustainability continued to grow during the last quarter. With 855 people now receiving our fortnightly e-bulletin, over 600 followers on Twitter and 100+ Facebook fans, we are reaching more people than ever.
 
Highlights of the quarter have included two well-received community-focussed events. The first saw around 15 chefs and restaurateurs visit Hawkwood, Organiclea’s organic community growing site in Walthamstow, East London. Ethical Eats is also working to connect restaurants with their local growing spaces through the Adopt a Plot scheme, being run in partnership with Capital Growth. This event was an excellent way to showcase a well-organised community project producing high quality salads.
 
The Ethical Eats Restaurant Ramble also returned this quarter, with around 20 members of the public joining the Ethical Eats team for a night of sustainable indulgence, visiting three top-quality vegetarian restaurants during the course of dinner. We visited Tibits, Mildreds and Saf in Soho and Hoxton, and got good media coverage and rave reviews from our Ramblers.

Ethical Eats has continued to work in close partnership with the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), providing advice to its members on buying more local and sustainable produce. We have also been working with Compassion in World Farming to produce detailed technical guidance for SRA members and other food businesses on animal welfare. We were delighted to sit on the judging panel for the food category of the Considerate Hotel of the Year awards in May.
 
We have given one-to-one support to around 25 businesses and other organisations, ranging from help with identifying ethical suppliers to advice on setting up a social enterprise using waste food. We also featured member Street Kitchen in an online article for the Jellied Eel: see http://bit.ly/fzCjxH
 
We have continued work on completely revamping the Local Food Finder (where restaurants can find local and sustainable suppliers online) for a relaunch in late summer/early autumn. We are exploring how this can link to Sustain’s work on promoting greater uptake of the Olympic and Paralympic Games food standards and the London 2012 Food Vision. We have also been asked to participate in a European project helping caterers to reduce food waste.

 
Fairtrade London Campaign

The Fairtrade London campaign continues to be hosted at Sustain’s office. For the Fairtrade Fortnight ‘bunting for justice’ activity Malcolm recruited volunteers to help the Fairtrade Foundation sort, sew and then hang thousands of decorated bunting flags to prepare for the successful Guinness World Record attempt to create the longest ever bespoke bunting chain. Malcolm also attended the World Fairtrade Day celebration in Battersea Park on 14 May, where over two miles of bunting was hung around the park.
 
Saturday 4 June was a double-header of Fairtrade activities for the campaign. First, with the local Camden Fairtrade group, the campaign ran a very popular stall on both days of the London Green Fair in Regents Park which attracted several hundred people to sign onto the supporter list. Second, that day saw the declaration of the 1,000th Fairtrade Town internationally, and Fairtrade London sent congratulations to the eight towns and cities which gained Fairtrade status that day.
 
Once the top-tier contracts for Olympic catering had been announced in April, the campaign sent those companies a copy of the open-letter that 1,000 supporters had signed earlier in the year, reminding the caterers to keep their commitments to sell 100% Fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar chocolate and bananas, and encouraging them to do more.


Good Food on the Public Plate

The project received a Working in Partnership Sustainability Award from the University of Greenwich as part of the Green Impacts project. We have worked with the University of Greenwich on food policy and the popular Feel Good Food days. The Greater London Authority confirmed funding until March 2013 and we now have a signed contract, and a new project officer is being recruited.


Making Local Food Work (in London):

Food Supply and Distribution
 
Colne Valley Food in a greenbelt area of Hillingdon in West London launched their online box scheme using the newly created IT system developed with Sustain’s support.
Three of Growing Communities’ start-up projects will launch before the end of June, running economically viable sustainable food trading schemes following the Growing Communities model.
 

Olympic and Paralympic Games

There are two distinct elements to Sustain’s work on food for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. These are:
 
Influencing health and sustainability standards for food at the Games themselves
Using the link with the Games to inspire a sustainable food legacy.
 
Responsibility for food served at the Games – to athletes, visitors and staff – resides with the London 2012 organisers LOCOG. Sustain advised on the food standards, adopted as the London 2012 Food Vision in December 2009. Sustain’s role has now shifted to focusing on:
 

Plans are progressing apace for the launch of a Food Legacy 2012 programme. The Greater London Authority food team and the London 2012 organisers LOCOG have both pledged financial contributions to help employ a member of staff to pursue a high-profile programme of work that will:
 

Sustainable Fish City

The aim of London becoming a Sustainable Fish City has taken some very significant steps forward over the past quarter. With the great news that Government has adopted sustainable fish standards for its own catering (see Good Food for Our Money campaign report), and 14 leading London universities now involved in Sustainable Fish City, we estimate that 700,000 people are now to be served sustainable fish. This includes 400,000 government employees, prisoners and members of the armed forces, and 188,000 students, plus thousands more London university staff. This total does not include the customers of all the restaurants, caterers and venues that have also joined in, which will add significantly to the total, particularly as the second biggest contract caterer in the UK (Sodexo) is already involved.
 
This quarter, we were delighted to welcome to the campaign the Zoological Society of London (ZSL, which runs London Zoo) as well as the SeaLife London Aquarium. Both run marine conservation and education programmes, and can promote the message of sustainable fish production and consumption to hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Together with the National Trust and London 2012, who were early adopters of the Sustainable Fish City policy, we are beginning to make inroads with high-profile tourist attractions to adopt sustainable fish buying and promotion to their visitors and communities, and negotiations are well advanced with several more.
 
In related news, one of our Sustainable Fish City partners, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), announced that it has been working with McDonald’s to ensure that 100,000,000 Filet-o-Fish meals in Europe will be MSC-certified from Autumn 2011. A quick calculation suggests that this equates to 2.5 million McDonald’s fish meals in London every year, another big step towards a sustainable fish city.
 

 

Winter/Spring 2011

 

The first Working Party topic of 2011, held on 23 February, was ‘The Dissolution of the Primary Care Trusts (PCT)’ and what it could mean for community food projects. The meeting and subsequent February Soirée were held at the Dalston Farm shop, a former disused business premises being converted into an urban farm which includes a polytunnel in the backyard, chickens on the roof and indoor growing by both hydroponic and aquaponic methods. The Soirée was very well attended by over 60 people.

This quarter saw London Food Link’s magazine The Jellied Eel go out to over 100 regular stockists, with an additional 14 Co-op stores in London. As this test run with the Co-op stores was successful, they will also stock the next issue (31). Back issues can be found at www.thejelliedeel.org

 

Capital Growth

The campaign is getting closer to 1,000 spaces, out of its 2,012 target. Eighteen London Boroughs are now supporting the campaign. Eight Housing Associations are also signed up and 18 local organisations have been recruited to be Capital Growth Local Leads – coordinating networking opportunities at a local level. A further recruitment round will take place during April for boroughs without a local lead.

This quarter there were three networking events, each with a different focus including a youth enterprise event, an edible estates event and a networking event targeting Islington groups in partnership with the Council and Local Lead for the borough. Over 100 people were involved in these events.

In March the training programme for the year was launched which now includes three other locations in addition to the Regents Park site. These sites are managed by local organisations, with experience of running training: Growing Communities (East London, Allens Gardens) London Wildlife Trust, (South London, Peckham) and Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (West London). The Growing for Schools training continues to be popular, and has benefited 23 schools so far in 2011, with another training day planned for May 2011.

Capital Growth is currently planning for spring and summer events, which will include two networking events and some site tours. In addition, 22 Capital Growth spaces are participating in the London Open Garden Squares weekend, which has been running for a number of years and attracts thousands of visitors. The Capital Growth Edible Open Gardens day, where spaces will be encouraged to hold an Open Day, will take place on 3 September.

The ABSeed competition, launched on 27 January 2011, is open to all edible gardens in educational institutions in London. There are 96 registrations so far, already exceeding the target of 80 participants. We are currently working on a plan to publicise ABSeed to colleges and universities which is the category with the fewest entrants.

Capital Bee

During the last three months Capital Bee has successfully run its competition to create 50 new apiaries in London. Forty-nine trainee beekeepers have now been placed with seven training centres across London, and all the equipment they need has been distributed. Their hives are currently being constructed using cedar from Wales, ready to take the colonies in spring 2012. The funding from the 50th place will be used to sponsor ten more new community apiaries/Capital Growth spaces, providing queen bees and other in-kind support. One of these spaces is on the roof of the company Melvita who have an organic cosmetics shop in Covent Garden.
As well as this initial phase of training, Capital Bee is now focusing on publicity. A poster campaign with pro bono support from Saatchi & Saatchi is being finalised, which will run on the London underground, and will coincide with events during June. Three film events are planned, and during March meetings have been held with the Royal Festival Hall and the Co-operative Group about joint ventures for the coming months.
 

Ethical Eats

Ethical Eats has had a busy start to 2011, with our network of restaurants and caterers interested in sustainability growing all the time. Training events for members of our network and of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) have been our focus over the past few months. January saw a workshop on ‘Marketing and PR for sustainable restaurants,’ to help businesses communicate the great things they’re doing to their customers, and a trip to Hospitality 2011.

In February we spoke to student chefs at Westminster Kingsway college about building sustainable practices into their cooking, and facilitated a session for growers and producers on selling to restaurants and caterers at Local Action on Food’s ‘Grow Your Business’ training day.

Our March workshop on sustainable fish at Billingsgate Training School was one of the most successful events we have ever run, with great feedback from attendees, and media coverage. The event was run in partnership with Good Catch, the Marine Stewardship Council and Sustain’s Sustainable Fish City campaign, and aimed to give chefs some ideas about more sustainable fish options they could put on their menus.

We have also been supporting members of our network through one-to-one support, both directly and via our partners Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency, London Remade Solutions and Carbon Descent. Over 30 business and organisations have benefited in this way so far this year, including several social enterprises, such as a start-up catering company run by a refugee community. We have been building the ‘resources for restaurants’ section of our website, which now includes advice on energy and waste management, and presentations from our events.

The Ethical Eats team was on the judging panel for the Sustainable City Awards, and was delighted when Café Spice Namaste won the overall Leadership in Sustainability award. 

We have lots of exciting plans in the pipeline: we’re working with Training for Life on a guide to apprenticeships for restaurants, developing guidance for restaurants on animal welfare and will be working to connect up restaurants with growing spaces over the coming growing season. We will also be relaunching ‘Local Food Finder’, which allows restaurants, caterers and other buyers to search online for their closest small-scale ethical suppliers.


Well London – Buywell

Activity in this final quarter of the Well London, Buywell project has been focused on completing the final project evaluations and supporting partners with their exit strategies from Well London to become sustainable community food enterprises.
This has included supporting the re-launch of South Acton Food Co-op and White City Food Co-op, running a workshop and joint networking event with Making Local Food Work Food Co-ops and Buying Groups strand, and engaging a new retailer in Queen’s Park in the Buywell Retail project, who has taken over a store that was previously part of the scheme. This quarter we have also helped establish the Buywell Retail project in two stores in Camden.


Funded separately, we have also been running the London Borough’s project, co-ordinating a series of meetings to support Local Authorities on their food work. We have also been working on the development of a Good Food Map of London boroughs, highlighting postive action that Local Authorities can take to help implement the London Food Strategy.


Olympic and Paralympic Games

Sustain continues to sit on the London 2012 Food Advisory Group, advising the organisers of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) on health and sustainability in their catering policy. Over recent months LOCOG has been negotiating the major contracts awarded to commercial caterers, for Games visitors, athletes, staff and volunteers, journalists and dignitaries. We understand that all of these major contracts – for the 17 million meals to be served within the Games – have now been awarded. Although all negotiations were confidential, we understand that the large contract caterers have been demonstrating keen interest in achieving the sustainability standards set out in the London 2012 Food Vision. These include commitments to 100% demonstrably sustainable fish; free range eggs; Fairtrade tea, coffee, bananas and sugar; a proportion of Freedom Food chicken and pork; and aspirational aims to serve LEAF-Marque and organic certified food.

Sustain has been busy discussing with LOCOG and the London Food Board the possibility of running a programme to promote opportunities for small- and medium-sized food enterprises, and those that can provide sustainable food, targeting events that will be hosting London 2012 events before and during the Games. We hope this will also result in a long-term commitment to a positive sustainable food legacy.

We are also participating in discussions and information exchanges with several Sustain members keen to set up ‘meet the buyer’ type events with London 2012 caterers, and to support high-profile publicity for sustainable food and the various sustainability certification programmes at the Games.


Good Food on the Public Plate

Forty-five chefs and catering staff from a wide range of organisations, including Transport for London, Metropolitan Police, the Heart Hospital and some London universities attended a training day at Westminster Kingsway catering college. The day focused on the link between cheap meat, large portions, human health, farm animal welfare and environmental concerns about animal feed. The discussions were backed up by demonstrations on using less but better meat. The day ended with a meal which we had adapted to contain less but better meat.


The meat tender is in its final stages. The last stage in the process prior to supply will be a report and sign off from the lead authority, Havering’s council.


The final report to the Greater London Authority (GLA) for the period April 2010-March 2011 has been submitted, with all our targets met or exceeded. We are awaiting the contract to confirm that the project will continue for a further year, but with funding reduced to allow only one full time member of staff instead of two, as originally envisaged.


Fairtrade London Campaign

January to March is the busiest time in the Fairtrade calendar, preparing for and carrying out activities during Fairtrade Fortnight. We facilitated local groups to ‘show off Fairtrade’ – this year’s theme.


Our own Fairtrade Fortnight event – London’s Red Carpet Fairtrade Experience – took place at the Whitgift Centre, Croydon, on 12 March and we reached our goal of 100 people having their red carpet Fairtrade Moment.


The other big project was producing our annual guide and The London Fairtrade Guide 2011 was launched in time for Fairtrade Fortnight. Some 90,000 copies were printed, with 72,000 pre-ordered by stores and local Fairtrade groups. Almost half of the remainder have now been distributed. 


In March, Haringey became London’s 21st Fairtrade Borough (22nd including the City of London). We welcomed several new Fairtrade schools, and have a new Fairtrade University too – the University of East London.


The number of people now receiving Fairtrade London email updates has increased to almost 1500. Efforts to attract and retain subscribers have included a number of supporter benefits, such as special deals on Fairtrade footballs, and a new book about Fairtrade.


Sustainable Fish City

Sustainable Fish City is the campaign to turn London into the world’s first city where businesses, public sector bodies, and citizens buy, sell and eat only sustainable fish. It is a collaboration between Sustain, Fish2Fork, the Marine Conservation Society, Marine Stewardship Council, Seafood Choices Alliance and the Environmental Justice Foundation – among many others.


The campaign received a valuable endorsement when European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, visited London in January. In a speech she said: ‘I was informed that London has been challenged to become the first ever Sustainable Fish City. What a challenge! ... There is a clear message here and I have received it. We need a new European Fisheries Policy and we can have it!’


Since the campaign launch on 11 January the number of caterers signing the pledge has increased steadily. London’s universities have been particularly keen supporters, and restaurants such as Carluccio’s and Wahaca and luxury dining such as the D&D London Restaurants group have also signed up. The second largest caterer in the UK, Sodexo, has agreed to become a pledge signatory.
Catering businesses have signed up to a pledge that they will:


Avoid the worst
Promote the best
Improve the rest.


The Sustainable Fish City website has attracted over 10,000 page views since the launch, and has been greatly boosted by links with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight campaign. The BBC Wildlife Fund (part of the BBC Wildlife Magazine) has confirmed a contribution to the campaign to build on the work specifically with higher education institutions in London. The Waterloo Foundation has also made a contribution to to develop a smartphone application and associated promotional work.