Food Plymouth presents an annual review of its activities during its Spring quarterly partnership and network meeting in March of each year. Last Wednesday saw representatives from all over Plymouth with varying interests in food come together and review the past year, discuss what is currently happening in Plymouth and the surrounding areas as well as plan for the coming year.
The Plymouth Food Equality Alliance was introduced by Clare Pettinger and a short workshop with its new coordinator, Lisa Howard, ensued. It was wonderful for everyone to meet Lisa and to enhance their understanding of the Plymouth Food Equality Alliance. It was also an ideal opportunity for Lisa to meet and learn from a highly involved group of partners. Further details of the review will be published in future editions of this e-bulletin. For now I will leave you with this A to Z cross-section of Food Plymouth’s activities presented by Food Plymouth CIC director Ian Smith as part of the review.
A = All Ways Apples Festival – a Food Plymouth ‘direct delivery’ project celebrating its tenth anniversary this year
B = Brexit – Food Plymouth is working with Sustain (the Alliance for better Food, Farming and Fishing) and Plymouth City Council to help the City’s preparations for this
C = Food Plymouth is collaborative and co-operative in its ethos and practice – including working on a Co-operative Councils Innovation Network (CCIN) ‘Policy Lab’ national project around local sustainable food partnerships and Co-operative Councils
D = Food Plymouth benefits from devolved and diverse leadership – there are many advantages to this, including releasing multiple energies and talents and avoiding the ‘all the eggs in one basket’ syndrome
E = Enterprise – Food Plymouth operates in Plymouth’s Social Enterprise City context
F = Fairtrade – Food Plymouth supports Fairtrade Plymouth on several different levels
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F = FLAVOUR – Food Plymouth is working with Plymouth Marjon University as an ‘observer partner’ bringing knowledge and connectivity to the FLAVOUR project, an Interreg 2 Seas project around making better use of surplus food, providing employment & training and addressing food poverty
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F = Focus – Food Plymouth is about Food, Food, Food
G = Growing – Plymouth benefits from some outstanding growing initiatives, including Tamar Grow Local, Grow Stonehouse and the Food Plymouth Growing Community Abundance project
H = History – Food Plymouth has a strong track record of achievement in both its Soil Association supported era (2010 – 2014) and its CIC supported era (2015 – present)
I = Impact Lab – Food Plymouth is engaging in this new Devon-wide initiative involving the University of Plymouth, Exeter University, the Met Office and other major partners developing organisational and business solutions to resilience challenges
J = The Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan – which has benefitted through Food Plymouth’s inputs and is now at the adoption stage
K = Food Plymouth enjoys a partnership with the Impact Hub King’s Cross around the national Feeding the City programme for social enterprise food business start-ups
L = Livewell Southwest – One of Food Plymouth’s key partners and a crucial benefactor-supporter
M = Food Plymouth is supporting the National Marine Park for Plymouth Sound proposal
M = Money – Food Plymouth CIIC is delivering a £36K per year core support and enabling service to the Food Plymouth partnership and network for a mere £6K
N = The National Marine Aquarium Plymouth – leading on Plymouth’s Sustainable Fish Cities work, supported by Food Plymouth
N = Networks – including Food Plymouth’s active membership of:
Local Networks – Plymouth Octopus Project (POP+) (for the Voluntary and Community Sector); Plymouth Social Enterprise Network (PSEN) (for Social Enterprises); and the Thrive Plymouth Network (for Public Health)
Regional Networks – Food Power South West and the Devon New Economies Collaboratory
National Networks – The Sustainable Food Cities (SFC) Network, Food Power, the Co-operative Councils Innovation Network (CCIN) (Food Plymouth is a partner organization)
O = Our Plymouth – celebrating Plymouth’s positivity. Find out more here
P = Partnerships – getting things done through collaboration and co-operation
Q = Quality – Food Plymouth’s work is increasingly being recognized as best practice across a range of disciplines
R = Resilience – there is growing consciousness around this basket of issues – and Food Plymouth has been contributing to this since 2010!
S = Sugar Smart Plymouth – an amazing and enduring example of partnership working
S = Plymouth is working towards Sustainable Food Cities (SFC) Silver Award through Food Plymouth
T = Teamwork – the key to Food Plymouth’s success
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T = Thrive Plymouth – the City’s ten year health inequalities programme including the Year 5 collaboration ‘People connecting through food’
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T = Trading income – vital to Food Plymouth’s sustainability (as it is to any true social enterprise)
U = UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – as a local sustainable food partnership Food Plymouth delivers in the domains of Social, Environmental and Economic Sustainability through the six strands of the Sustainable Food Cities (SFC) framework
V = Values – underpinning all that Food Plymouth does
W = The Food Plymouth Website www.foodplymouth.org – vastly improved thanks to POP+ Esmee Fairbairn funding and great work by Clare Pettinger and Zoe Nile – and more partner content required please …
X = Be careful what you vote for …
Y = Yes – Food Plymouth’s well known ‘can do’ attitude
Z = Zoe Nile, Food Plymouth’s coordinator who communicates and catalyses and holds all the pieces together
