Over 120 local leaders gather in Cardiff to find an exit from food poverty

Including workshops and speakers representing 44 partnerships, the four UK nations, rural and urban communities, those working with younger and older people, the Food Power (1) conference will bring together a diverse range of voices to share learning on how local communities can take a joined-up approach to make a difference to the lives of those in food poverty.

Ben Reynolds, Deputy Chief Executive of Sustain says, “With today’s Childhood Obesity Plan the Government has announced that they are looking for local trailblazers to level the gap on health inequalities, and break the link between deprivation and obesity. We hope the Government will work with alliances within the Food Power network who are already taking leadership in this area, and moreover trying to address the root causes of poverty, as well as using food to alleviate some of the effects.”

With their new School Holiday Enrichment Programme (SHEP), the Welsh Government has shown significant leadership in how statutory services can play a key role in mitigating the impact of hunger on children. Professor Mark Drakeford, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Welsh Government, will be speaking during the day.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance says, “The School Holiday Enrichment Programme is a really important initiative of this Assembly term. It forms part of that wider repertoire of actions such as free healthy breakfasts in primary schools, which the Welsh Government has developed since devolution. I’m looking forward to the conference and new ideas it will generate to help tackle food poverty in Wales.”

The conference will be preceded by the launch of Food Cardiff’s new Food Poverty Action plan on 26 June at The Little Man Coffee Company, Cardiff. Katie Palmer who heads up Food Cardiff says "We're delighted to share Cardiff' s action plan today with friends from across the Food Power network. The plan outlines how we will build resilience in our food system to support all people in Cardiff to access good food."

The aim of the conference is to strengthen local communities’ ability to reduce food poverty through solutions developed by them with the support of their peers from other communities across the UK. Through this work alliances strive to transform the way that people in food poverty can access support and create long-term sustainable lives free from hunger.

In addition to representatives from 44 food poverty alliances, representatives will also be attending from Sustainable Food Cities, Feeding Britain, Menu for Change, the Independent Food Aid Network, Trussell Trust, The Women’s Institute and FareShare, including those leading work in Wales.

For more information about the conference, launch event on 26 June or Food Power, please contact Maddie Guerlain at maddie@sustainweb.org or 0203 5596 777. For more information about Food Cardiff’s new Food Poverty Action Plan, please contact Katie Palmer at Katie.Palmer2@wales.nhs.uk.

ENDS

NOTES

1. Food Power is a four-year programme led by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and Church Action on Poverty and funded by the Big Lottery Fund. Food Power works with local alliances throughout the UK to tackle the root causes of food poverty and share learning across peer networks.
2. The annual Sustainable Food Cities (SFC) conference will take place at Cardiff City Hall on 26 June. SFC supports local areas to develop a cross-sector partnership of local public agencies, businesses, academics and NGOs committed to working together to make healthy and sustainable food a defining characteristic of where they live. SFC is delivered by the Soil Association, Food Matters and Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.
3. As a number of local food alliances are members of both Food Power and Sustainable Food Cities, the conferences have been planned back-to-back so that representatives can easily attend the two conferences.