Food

Food issues

helping to make our local food system more sustainable

The Sustainable Fish City campaign calls on all schools to serve only sustainable fish. Please take action now to help ensure the national review of school food standards results in a requirement that fish served to school children comes only from sustainable sources. And also ask schools in Hackney to make sure that only sustainable fish is on their menus.

Food

Following Hackney’s poor showing in last November’s and also this September's Good Food for London report, Sustainable Hackney will be working to help bring together groups and individuals interested in food issues, and to make sure Hackney Council and others take action to help create a more healthy and sustainable food system. Cllr. Sophie Linden, Hackney Council cabinet member with responsibility for leading on sustainability issues, told the Hackney Citizen "It is disappointing to be sow low down the league table as we are very committed to many of the elements that make up this report". Please email Cllr. Sophie Linden to ask why the council is not committed to all the elements of the report and to find out exactly what the council will be doing to ensure the borough moves up the league table!

The positive impact of some boroughs' initiatives is illustrated well in a five-page feature in the March 2012 edition of the the influential Cost Sector Caterer magazine - see pages 20 to 24.

We aim to build on what is going well, such as the many local food growing initiatives, and address a wider range of issues such as ethical, healthy and sustainable food procurement, promotion of local shops and markets, development of supportive planning policies, and food poverty.

Ways of developing a more localised and improved food sector could be through Scaling Up the Community Food Sector and forming mutually beneﬁcial relationships between community enterprises and private businesses - an approach explored in a report of July 2012, commissioned by Making Local Food Work. An appendix to the report gives detailed case studies from the UK and further afield, the nearest being Newham's Community Food Enterprise (CFE), and these will hopefully provide inspiration.

News

05/04/13 Help to set up a growing space: Capital Growth is repeating this successful programme to help people to set up and run a food growing space. Growing Leaders gives training and advice to help you develop the skills needed to manage a food growing space. This programme includes training worth £100 plus other assistance and is completely free for up to 10 people. You need to apply by Monday May 20th 2013.
27/03/13 London Assembly report warns that, with thousands in our city already going hungry, food poverty is set to get much worse
07/03/13 Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is offering £5m over a period of three years as part of a new food funding strand. Applications are invited from organisations focused on understanding and investigating the critical role that food plays in wellbeing and the interplay between food, sustainability and poverty.
09/02/13 Food Matters publish a Building Local Food Systems Handbook, to unpick some the key food issues and enthuse people to explore, discover and act.
08/02/13 Organiclea are recruiting a 3 days per week Horticultural Trainer and Outreach Gardens Development Worker
01/02/13 New report Growing Success: The impact of Capital Growth on community food growing in London calls for food growing spaces to be provided in all public spaces, all new residential development and in all schools.
OrganicWick, a vegetable box scheme for Hackney Wick, run by local residents, is back in action.
Global Food - Waste Not Want Not report shows how 50% of all food produced in the world can end up as waste, and the Sustainable Restaurant Association calculates that restaurants waste almost five times more food than the average UK household - 0.48kg per diner per meal vs. 0.1kg per diner per meal in the home.
Hackney Homes encourage estate residents to grow their own food
12/01/13 Funding available to transform derelict land into food growing spaces
30/09/12 Better Breakfast Guide launched – to help businesses serve more sustainable fare
25/09/12 What if I told you: you eat 3.496 litres of water? See this infographic about hidden/virtual water in our lives – food, washing, living etc. (just scroll down it). Also published in The Guardian.
12/09/27 'Ugly' fruit and veg to be sold in some supermarkets - will others follow suit?
07/09/12 John Rensten, who previously set up The Green, a gastro pub in Clerkenwell EC1, has now started a new Forage London website: www.foragelondon.co.uk. Sign up to a monthly newsletter for tips on what to pick, and when and where to find it. More info from John below.
22/08/12 A government publication, Space for food growing: Guide, highlights the health and environmental benefits that community food growing can bring and encourages people to 'spot a plot'.
03/07/12 Top tips for reducing environmental impact
06/06/12 Hackney Foodbank preparing to open - is this the way to address food poverty?