FOOD champions and community events are just some of the ideas on the table as part of a new Warwickshire-wide food strategy.
Warwickshire Food Strategy is geared at ensuring as many people as possible have access to good quality, healthy and affordable food.
The increased pressures on household budgets and the rising cost of food, coupled with the ongoing legacy of the pandemic means that accessing affordable food and making healthy food choices is a challenge faced by many people living in Warwickshire.
Agencies and organisations across the county have pledged to work together to try and help in three key areas.
These are helping residents access affordable, local and healthy food, helping communities develop their own skills to make healthier food choices, and working with local supply chains to encourage locally sourced food choices, reduce food miles and reduce food waste.
The recruitment of food champions and the launch of Kind Communities – Kind Food events will be just some of the initiatives launched to help deliver on the aims of the strategy.
Two Kind Communities – Kind Food events will be held this year – one in Leamington in July and another in Nuneaton in September – inviting a range of community groups and organisations along to share and promote their ideas and methods around low-cost, healthy and sustainable cooking methods and recipes, which will include cooking demonstrations.
And WCC will be launching a campaign to recruit and train food champions across the county. Their role will include working with local communities and local food suppliers, including shops, supermarkets, markets and allotment associations to encourage and enable better availability of local fresh food.
This will build on some of the existing support already in place, including free school meals, food banks and community pantries and the Holiday Activities and Food programme.
Chair of the Warwickshire Food Forum Coun Heather Timms said: “The pandemic highlighted existing inequalities in accessing good quality, affordable food across the county, which is now exacerbated further through the ongoing cost of living challenges.
“What we eat is central to our health, so the availability of affordable and healthy food is important in helping to reducing some of the inequalities that exist across the county.
“The Warwickshire Food Forum partnership is made up of agencies and organisations who are already working with residents and communities to provide support. The partnership is therefore ideally placed to work together to drive the Warwickshire Food Strategy forward and deliver on real actions that will have a positive impact on the areas of the county that will benefit most.”
For more information on food support in Warwickshire visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/food
