Category: Good Food Projects

Liverpool’s Good Food Plan Impact Report 2022

We want to live in a city where everyone can eat good food.

Liverpool’s Good Food Plan addresses key issues related to the food we eat in Liverpool. This includes food insecurity, access to and take-up of healthy, nutritious food, the impact the food we eat is having on our planet, and the practices by which the food we eat is produced.

This report shares the progress made in 2022 towards the goals of the Good Food Plan. It presents ‘Action Highlights’ under each of the five goals identified by Liverpool’s Good Food Taskforce, alongside updates from residents, organisations and businesses who pledged to work towards the vision of Good Food For All at the Good Food Plan Pledge event in November 2021.

 

Read Liverpool’s Good Food Plan Impact Report 2022 here

 

Healthy Start for Liverpool

The Healthy Start Scheme is a government funded program that aims to increase the health of women on low incomes and their young children to give them the best start in life.

It is available to women who are 10+ weeks pregnant or have a child up to the age of 4 and who are on income-related benefits.  They receive free vitamins and £4.25 each week that can be spent on fruit, vegetables and milk – enabling women who have little disposable income to be able to prioritise healthy food and increase their vitamin and mineral intake. The scheme has recently become digitised, paper vouchers will eventually be fully replaced by digital cards by the end of March 2022.

In Liverpool, prior to the pandemic only two out of every three women in Liverpool eligible for the Healthy Start Scheme claimed this benefit, although this number has fluctuated.[1] There is concern that uptake may be affected significantly during the switch over from paper to the digital scheme as claimants are required to re-register.

In Liverpool, we  know that one in three adults is food insecure, and that only one in two adults regularly eat their 5-a-day.[2] Poor nutrition, throughout the life cycle, including during pregnancy and early childhood has significant knock-on effects on mental and physical health, increasing the prevalence of diet-related diseases.

We want every child to have the best start in life; as a city we follow the Marmot Principles[3] which includes seeking to be a place where everyone has a healthy standard of living.  Increasing the uptake of the Healthy Start Scheme is a key part of working towards this vision.

Studies have been conducted exploring some of the barriers preventing full uptake of the Healthy Start Scheme. Potential barriers include:

  • Limited awareness of the scheme amongst target group
  • Low confidence around how to access and use the Scheme
  • Burden of administration around confirming eligibility for the scheme
  • Limited number of retailers participating in the scheme (this is shifting with the digitalisation of the scheme)
  • Stigma of using a means tested scheme
  • Challenges around the transition from paper to the digital scheme

With the aim of increasing uptake of Heathy Start Scheme in Liverpool, this project aims to identify local barriers and propose solutions.

The project is working with key stakeholders including (but not limited to) a diverse group of eligible women all of whom currently use the scheme; a diverse group of eligible women do not currently access the scheme; health care professionals including midwives, GPs, health visitors; children centres and community groups who connect with eligible women.

Visit this page for updates about the Healthy Start for Liverpool project soon.

[1] Healthy-Start-vouchers-uptake-data-england.xlsx (live.com)

[2] Why is it important and why now? – Feeding Liverpool

[3] Fair Society Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review) – IHE (instituteofhealthequity.org)

Culturally Appropriate Food Project

The aim of the project is to bring relevant stakeholders together including ethnic minority residents, to identify areas in Liverpool’s food system where access to culturally appropriate food could be improved.
Example focus areas that may arise out of these discussions include:

  • emergency food provision
  • community food provision
  • high street provision
  • food provided in hospitals and healthcare settings
  • food provided in educational setting

Relevant stakeholders will include:

  • ethnic minority residents
  • community groups that work closely with ethnic minorities
  • emergency food providers
  • community food providers
  • relevant public health practitioners
  • representatives from relevant anchor organisations connected with education and hospital food provision

Further aims include:

  • Facilitate focus groups with Liverpool city residents on culturally appropriate food in Liverpool
  • Identify areas in Liverpool’s food system where access to culturally appropriate food could be improved
  • Listening to personal experience accessing culturally appropriate food in Liverpool (emergency food provision, community food provision, high street provision, food provided in hospitals and healthcare settings and food provided in educational setting).
  • Look at best-practice from other food alliances
  • Formation of a core group and production of creative outputs that can communicate people’s stories and
    ideas in a new way
  • Create collaborative spaces bringing together a wide range of expertise to identify priorities and implement change

Please complete this short five minute survey about culturally appropriate food.

Visit this page for updates soon!

 

 

 

Community Food Fund: Good Food Projects

Announced at the Good Food Plan Pledge Event in November, Feeding Britain awarded Feeding Liverpool £30,000 from their Community Food Fund to develop new community food spaces with St Andrew’s Community Network, Micah Liverpool, Liverpool Six Community Association, and New Beginnings Improving Lives.

This funding will go towards Good Food Projects setting up food pantries, relaunching a community market, developing mobile school-based food clubs, and developing a mobile unit to extend the reach of a community food store.

We caught up with the four organisations as they prepare to launch their Good Food Projects.

St Andrews Community Network

St Andrews Community Network lead the Your Local Pantry network in North Liverpool. These are membership-based food pantries where members pay £3.50 for 10 items. They are intending to use this funding to open three new pantries in partnership with local community organisations in the coming months. St Andrews Community Network will be working to develop these pantries with KKZ Coaching in Walton, Marybone Youth and Community Centre in Vauxhall, and Bethel Church in Tuebrook.

Simon Huthwaite, Operations Manager at St Andrew’s Community Network said:

“We are excited about these new opportunities to support excellent organisations and their local communities. Our partnership with Feeding Liverpool is something we are really excited about and my conversations with other pantries nationwide are highlighting the need for more of this kind of partnership working.”

St Andrew’s Community Network were awarded £15,900.

 

Micah Liverpool

Micah Liverpool run a large independent foodbank serving the local community and asylum seekers and refugees. Their Good Food Project is a relaunch of their membership-based community market, closed since March 2020, with fresh fruit and vegetables included for the first time, using local community growing organisations to do so. Micah Liverpool is looking to relaunch in February of this year.

Paul O’Brien, Micah Liverpool’s Chief Executive said:

“The funding has allowed Micah to extend its reach in the community and to help people in and around the area who have been suffering in poverty. The funding will be especially useful to help those that have fallen below the poverty line during the pandemic.”

Micah Liverpool were awarded £750.

 

Liverpool Six Community Association

Liverpool Six Community Association run an established food union serving the community of L6, Everton. They will develop three to four school-based food clubs as a mobile extension of their existing food union which provides ambient, chilled, fresh and frozen food.

Liverpool Six Community Association’s Head of Operations, Shirley Marshall, explained:

“We would love to work with families to empower them and help them retain their dignity and take away stigma associated with food banks.”

Liverpool Six Community Association were awarded £5250.

 

New Beginnings Improving Lives (NBIL)

NBIL run a membership-based community food store in Tuebrook which opened in June 2021. NBIL are using the money awarded to develop a mobile unit to extend the reach of their community food store. This will be done by using a repurposed ice cream van to be able to take their community food store to food deserts in the city.

New Beginnings Improving Lives Director and Founder Michelle Roach said:

“Access to low-cost food is a huge barrier to those who are both vulnerable and have no recourse to public funds and with our mobile pantry we want the community accessing low-cost affordable fresh produce which will result in fewer foodbank referrals in the long term. We want to thank the team at Feeding Liverpool for allowing us to make our plan a reality and we look forward to watching this initiative grow from strength to strength.”

New Beginnings Improving Lives were awarded £8400.

 

If you have an idea for a Good Food Project, email [email protected]

To stay up to date with these Good Food Projects, visit our website here.