Notes of London Food Access Meeting
Islington Town Hall on
15th September 2006
In attendance: Louise Beckingsdale (A Moveable Feast – Healthy Living Centre); Tom Beeston; Sarah Bowyer (City University); Zahra Datoo (The Learning Trust); Tamarind Falk (Sustain London Food Link volunteer); Ben Reynolds (Sustain London Food Link); Paul Rosenbloom (Sustain London Food Link volunteer); Angela Rowan (London Borough of Richmond upon Thames); Anna Russell (Fareshare); Sarah Trowbridge (North Paddington Food Co-ops); Sarah Williams (Newham Food Access Partnership); Lisa Wilson (Sustain Food Poverty Project).
1) Summary of presentation by Anna Russell – Fareshare’s work in tackling Food Access
Fareshare was established 12 years ago by the homeless charity Crisis, but became independent in 2004. They support communities to relieve food poverty through providing access to food - by redistributing surplus food, providing information, access and training, and campaigning for change. They use charity donations of surplus food and safe food resold from commercial outlets. A variety of food types are provided. Fareshare are active in most areas of London, plus 33 other cities and towns in the UK. In London, food is delivered twice a week to homeless charities and community centres. Over the next three years Fareshare aim to double their coverage and impact by opening 4 new central depots and expanding existing operations. Two main areas of Fareshare’s research are food poverty and food waste. Details about membership of Fareshare’s Community Food Network were also given. The presentation ended by asking how Fareshare can maximise relationships with the food and drink industry, and a discussion followed.
‘No-income’ groups are the main recipients of food from FareShare. In community centres, ‘low-income’ groups receive food. Food is often used as a way to engage people so they then have access to other services.
2) Discussion: How to engage positively with corporate food industry
Several members stated that they did not currently engage with industry at all. Some raised the question of whether this was possible as they were a part of Primary Care Trust or other statutory organisation. One project mentioned that they used a wholesaler to get fruit and vegetables for their two weekly co-ops in Westminster, spending between £350-£450 per week on stocking groceries for their co-op. The group discussed whether projects could or should approach corporations for assistance with equipment, premises or the costs of running projects.
It was noted that it was controversial for an organisation associated with nutrition to use corporate funding as some may not consider this ethical.
Newham Food Access Partnership reported that they are linked with Tate & Lyle. The group agreed that it is difficult to engage with large supermarkets at the Borough level although some have tried with Fair Trade products. It was noted that there was a large potential role for supermarkets to reduce food poverty through highly skilled staff, as potential funders or as donators of food at end of food chain, yet the issue of conflicting interests remained as supermarkets are profit driven. The group thought it more likely that they would gain from a corporation if it is based locally e.g. Nestle in Croydon (is there another example you can use – this company is horribly controversial!!).
There was a discussion exploring what organisations actually want supermarkets to do in terms of providing aid or addressing food access issues. Lisa stated that supermarkets opening stores in more locations cannot be a satisfactory solution, on its own, to food poverty as the issues are much wider that this. It was suggested that groups could argue for supermarkets to employ community dieticians and that manufacturers and retailers could donate cookery equipment. Projects could target the corporate social responsibility (CSR) departments that many corporations have to conduct work within communities.
It was noted that the big supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda have greater donating potential as their retailing extends beyond food. It was suggested that small organisations could approach company executives with business plans/solutions, e.g to remove and redistribute waste food (as Fareshare do). In turn corporations can then claim their waste is recycled through food groups (CSR). However it was pointed out that if community and charitable groups are to be paid for removing waste they would need methods of disposing of all waste. It was suggested that one solution would be composting, which could be sold by community centres.
Comparisons were made with the US system of food distribution where corporations are unwilling to donate due to their potential liability. (My understanding is that US corporations get tax rebates for donating, so they donate huge amounts – their food banks movement relies on this, I think!)
Richmond reported that they were at the early stages of establishing food co-op, so had not yet been in touch with corporations.
3) Update on Food Poverty Network
It was reported that the Food Standards Agency has a contract with the Food Poverty Network to hold regular UK wide meetings. These meeting bring together food projects from across the UK to share good practice and discuss challenges, achievements and ideas. The next meeting is to be held in Cardiff on the 7th November.
It was reported that the Food Poverty Project would be reintroducing membership charges. The project has been running for 10 years and membership has been free only for the last 2 years whilst the project was unfunded. Members of London Food Link will have reduced membership fees with the FPP and vice versa.
The Food Poverty Project will be focusing on issues around older people and food access in the coming months and will be meeting with various older people’s groups. The meeting was asked to provide the project with any examples of good practice in addressing food poverty in older people to help strengthen the case being developed.
The meeting was updated on the current status of the London Food Strategy. The strategy was launched in May and there has been little formal action since. However, there has been extensive work behind the scenes on the implementation of the strategy and once an implementation plan is released, members of the London Food Access Forum will be consulted on their possible roles.
4) News updates from those present
No further news was added by meeting members at this stage.
5) AOB
There was some discussion about the benefit of the meetings, including that they are pooling evidence that food access projects can work. Several members noted that there may be a need for more statistics.
There was a suggestion that a future meeting could cover evaluation.
The Food Poverty Project mentioned a meeting with the Food Study Group which may develop into a partnership whereby Universities provide MSc and PhD students to carry out evaluation in community food projects as a part of their work.
Registered charity (no.