Amber Dansoh – Development Officer, Arun and Chichester Food Partnership
Amber introduced us to the work of the Arun and Chichester Food Partnership, which is a collaborative network of cross-sector partners in the local food system working to make good food accessible to all throughout the Arun and Chichester district.
They have a vision for no one to go hungry; everyone to have access to good quality food; people to grow, share and learn together to create skilled, fulfilled and nourished communities; plus a real commitment to reduce the environmental impact of food production, procurement, consumption and waste.
Stockpiling is not a financial option for many and furthermore, those who can’t afford to stockpile might struggle to be able to afford to prepare and cook that food.
Amber stressed the need for every part of the food chain needs to become more resilient.
The food partnership has produced 2 useful booklets: the Local Food Action Toolkit (a guide to setting up community food initiatives) and the Community Food Growing Toolkit (a guide to starting a community garden). They actively support community growing, including community gardens, allotments and orchards. Such projects are used to develop a ‘we can do this’ attitude in communities.
A major piece of their work involved mapping the food related assets in their area, in order to identify gaps and vulnerability. Keeping this audit updated will be important to ongoing food security.
Amber finished by telling us that the Mid Sussex Food Partnership has also been working on a map of food organisations in their area. They are running a food storage pilot project with the objectives of increasing storage capacity for community organisations; enabling greater food redistribution and shared supplies; strengthening emergency food resilience; building future links with local producers and growers; and supporting a stronger and more sustainable local food system. They have started with a relatively small 20 cubic metres unit, storing ambient food.
For more information visit: https://arunchifood.org.uk
It sounds as if a lot of good work is already happening locally towards greater food security with some useful models developing.