We are absolutely delighted to introduce our new Advisory Group Chair, Juli Thompson. With her extensive background as a seasoned Chief Executive Officer at Inn Churches in Bradford and lead for the Food Savers Network, she is poised to bring a wealth of knowledge and a unique outlook to propel us towards success.
“I am thrilled and honoured to step into the role of chair for FoodWise Leeds. Our city has made remarkable strides in creating a more sustainable and equitable food system, as evidenced by our bronze award from Sustainable Food Places in 2019. However, I believe we have only scratched the surface of our potential.
As chair, I am excited to build on our strong foundation and lead our diverse coalition of partners towards our silver and even gold award goals. I’m particularly passionate about advancing our six focus areas outlined in the Leeds Food Action Plan. From improving food governance to promoting planet-friendly food choices, each aspect of our mission is crucial in transforming Leeds into a model food city.
This is a wonderful opportunity to bring together people from all walks of life – from local businesses and government officials to community organisations and individual citizens – in our shared vision of a healthy, sustainable, and fair food system for everyone in Leeds. Together, we can cultivate a thriving food culture that nourishes our community, supports our local economy, and protects our environment.
I look forward to championing FoodWise Leeds’ initiatives, inspiring more individuals and organizations to become FoodWise, and showcasing our city’s innovative approach to food sustainability on a national and global stage. Let’s make Leeds a shining example of what a truly food-wise city can achieve!” I like our chances.
Juli chairing our Advisory Group meeting at Rethink Leeds
Good News story about new models for emergency provision. This article shared via Sustainable Food Places was written by Andrea Gibbons, and shared as part of our #GoodFoodStories series.
Seventy people from within and outside our network of existing Sustainable Food Places members recently joined us for a pop-up webinar entitled From Co-Ops to Bulk Purchasing: Models for Emergency Food Provision. It was inspired by the wealth of thoughts and responses to a simple question posed to the network email forum by their coordinator, and our very own Sonja Woodcock of FoodWise Leeds. Her question:
“I’m keen to know what areas have food buying co-ops in place to support food purchasing for food aid provision? I’m surprised at how much food is currently being bought in Leeds and am interested in how a food buying co-op might work. Any insights would be welcome. I’m particularly keen to know how small food aid providers could be included.”
A similar and parallel discussion was simultaneously being had within one of the Soil Association’s My Food Community programme cohorts, led by Hull Food Partnership coordinator Darren Squires. They therefore teamed up to create a joint panel discussion on this topic.
Our session opened with thoughts on how and why coops and bulk purchasing are of value in supporting access to food through; consistency, quality, autonomy, control, empowerment, and cost control. The ensuing discussion touched upon, not only, food coops and the mechanisms of bulk-buying, but we also discussed; mobile food vans, the potential of social supermarkets, issues surrounding combining purchased and surplus foods, and how to tackle supply chain issues in urban and rural settings.
Our speakers were:
Kelly Fritzsche – Co-op Food Project Manager for Plymouth on their experience, including the model and mechanics of Food Co-ops and the roles within them, and their many benefits.
Ian Smith – Food Plymouth Core Enabling Team and CIC on their journey as a food partnership working on food access and insecurity towards food co-ops and social supermarkets, and the multiple cooperative connections and partnerships emerging from this work
Anna Route, development officer for Hull Food Partnership talked about their work with the council to optimise the spending of the Household Support Fund by accessing the council’s dynamic procurement bulk purchasing account with Turner Price to buy food for distribution among their network of foodbanks and pantries
Robert Garland, Bassetlaw Food Bank on their mobile van community shop, which provides access to rural communities to affordable food cupboard staples, fresh produce, and a range of toiletries and cleaning products.
The audience also brought a large amount of expertise to enrich the discussion, they included insights from:
John Westwood of Baobab Bach; with their network of food pantries and mobile van in the Southern Welsh valleys
Mary Vickers, community food coordinator for North East Lincolnshire, on their transition from foodbank to food pantry.
In this webinar : three different models for sourcing food 1) Co-operatives, 2) group purchasing and 3) small-scale bulk purchasing. Find out what is involved when you move from receiving donations to making purchases. Chaired by Sonja Woodcock from FoodWise Leeds and Darren Squires from Hull Food Partnership, the panel will include: • Ian Smith: Food Plymouth • Kelly Fritzsche: Food Co-ops Plymouth • Robert Garland: Bassetlaw Food Bank • Anna Route: Hull Food Partnership
Shared as part of our #GoodFoodStories series. Annual Feed Leeds Celebration took place on Monday 26 Feb at Meanwood Valley Urban Farm. And at the event, we heard from amazing food growing projects from all across Leeds and we shared a delicious and nutritious meal! We also announced the winners of the Feeds Leeds Food Growing Awards. People from across Leeds were invited to nominate their favourite local food growing champions and winners were announced at the celebratory event. We would like to thank all those who voted, everyone who has contributed to growing and the Feed Leeds Network and of course, we’d like to congratulate the winners. It is always so nice to recognise the people who make a difference in our community.
And the awards went to, (drumroll)…
Best Local Business Supporting Local Sustainability and Resilience – Awarded to Meanwood Farm CSA
Most Enthusiastic Young Gardeners – Awarded to Khadija Begum who volunteers with Kirkstall Farm CSA (KVUF) and Ellie Hopkins who volunteers with Incredible Edible Garforth
There is so much going on at FoodWise and within the Feed Leeds Community. You can check out more of what we do by browsing our website. Also find out more or join in through the Feed Leeds website and socials – Feedleeds on facebook and @Feed_Leeds on twitter ( X) and also their growers group Potting Shed (Feed Leeds)And a big thank you to Climate Action Leeds for generous support to the eventto make the delicious food so affordable.
FoodWise Leeds, the sustainable food partnership for Leeds, is seeking a new Chair, to guide the partnership and to increase its influence and impact towards creating a healthy, sustainable and fair food system for everyone in Leeds. We are looking for someone with a passion for good food and ambition to make a difference in Leeds.
FoodWise Leeds is recruiting a new Chair – could that be you?
We invite you to read the role description and contact Sonja.woodcock@zestleeds.org.uk to ask any questions or to talk through the role in more detail.
To apply please send your Expression of Interest as a covering letter and complete the skills analysis audit. We appreciate you may not have expertise in all areas.