Event Notes: Sustainable Food Places Conference

The Sustainable Food Places Conference took place on the 23rd and 24th of March and was hosted in Oxford at St. Catherine’s College. Charlotte Thwaite and Ethan Hall represented the Manchester Food Board.

The Sustainable Food Places Conference was a great opportunity to meet various food partnerships from across the UK and hear about similar issues that are being worked on and how different organisations are progressing. Over 160 ‘food champions’ were present! It was great to hear first-hand what other food partnerships are working on and the similar issues that they are facing. This was anything from having to show that food required a joined-up systems approach to movement building and getting people behind the area's food strategy, or how to get procurement officers on-side for more local and nutritious food.

Morning workshops

Diversity and inclusion principles in food partnership work:

One of the best bits of the day was a chance to hear from various practitioners in the food system on how they have tackled issues or share their expertise on a topic. The first of the morning workshops was on how to apply diversity and inclusion principles to food partnership work. Manu Maunganidze, an inclusion and diversity trainer from SOS-UK, lead this session. Manu focused on issues of cultural competence, institutional change, and creating strategies towards better communication and partnership building. He also highlighted the REDI self-assessment tool that is offered by SFP. (https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/resources/sfp_toolkit/).

Cost of living and sustainable food:

This set of roundtable discussions focused on reducing the need for food banks and pantries. Most participants were from larger cities and towns rather than rural areas as people were speaking about how communities have been affected by the duel issues from Covid and the cost of living. It was difficult ot move beyond the current crisis and talk about solutions but some good examples of best practise were uncovered. One of these from the Winchester food partnership was how competition between different food banks was reduced by fostering a more cooperative mindset and sharing food rather than fighting over it.

Afternoon workshops

Bury Food Partnership and healthy start vouchers:

We heard from the Bury Food Partnership - they explained their recent projects and challenges. Bury highlighted a project to increase the uptake of Healthy Start Vouchers in Bury Market. This project introduced a promotional campaign to link market stalls and food producers to lower-income residents. A pilot scheme was developed where £5 vouchers at children’s centres for Bury Market Fruit and Veg stands and this was also combined with cookery classes. This pilot forged new connections between residents are their local food environment.

Aberdeen and Leicestershire and procurement:

The other workshop focused on procurement. Aberdeen and Leicestershire were speaking about how they were trying to shape local economies by changing procurement practices in food. Both had very different approaches. Aberdeen’s approach was shaped around building connections between suppliers and buyers. This meant that the market was created at the same time as the demand. Though in its early stages, anecdotal evidence was proving optimistic.  In Leicestershire, a more quantitative, research-based approach was being undertaken. Consultants were brought in to conduct a life-cycle analysis of the carbon footprint of various foods. Products from different suppliers were analysed to build a body of evidence to educate procurers about the carbon implications of their decisions and persuade them to take more climate-conscious actions in the future.

Conclusion

The 2023 SFP Conference was a great success. A load of knowledge and experience was shared, and new resources were gained. The food system needs to change fast, the SFP conferences provide a forum to share, debate, collaborate and action a better food system.