We’re excited to announce a free film screening of Made in Liverpool: This land is our land, a new Guardian film co-produced with the team at Kensington Fields Community Association (KFCA) and Feeding Liverpool.
The screening will take place on Thursday 23rd June 5pm to 7pm at Kensington Fields Social Club, 24 Hall Lane, Liverpool, L7 8TQ in partnership with KFCA and Feeding Liverpool.
A panel discussion and Q&A will follow the screening giving the audience an opportunity to hear from the people behind the film including; Sue Robinson from KFCA; Mark Harrison from Kensington Fields CLT; John Domokos from The Guardian; Jennifer Graham from Feeding Liverpool; and Paul Kelly from Breaking Ground.
We’re also delighted to have food from Homebaked Bakery available after the panel discussion, and to be partnering with Cinema Nation, the team behind Scalarama and The Spirit of Liverpool: Archive Films, helping us bring this film into the community.
Made in Liverpool: This land is our land
Sue and Myra run a community centre at the heart of Kenny Fields in Liverpool. Their pantry offers residents affordable food, but also a sense of togetherness, pride, and plenty of laughs.
But there is something missing: a feeling of control and security. With development spreading rapidly from Liverpool city centre, residents fear for the future of their community – and now they are starting to fight back.
This is the fifth episode of Made in Britain by The Guardian, a community-based video journalism project looking at poverty, inequality and the challenges our communities face in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The aim is to put the individuals who are typically under-represented in the media in front of and behind the camera.
As part of the Good Food Plan’s Healthy Start for Liverpool we delighted to be offering free training for volunteers and voluntary sector staff members.
This free online and in-person training is aimed at volunteers and staff members who support foodbanks, community food spaces, and community centres.
Through the session you will learn:
What is the Healthy Start Scheme
Who is eligible
How the digitalisation of the scheme will impact those you support
What being a Healthy Start Community Champion means for you
We are encouraging every foodbank and community food space to send at least one volunteer to these training events.
Online via Zoom: Monday 23rd May 11am-12pm, this training will be led by Jane Partington from The Bread and Butter Thing. Register to attend online here.
In-Person: Wednesday 25th May 2pm-3:30pm, this training will be led by Annette James from Feeding Liverpool at St Andrew’s Church Clubmoor, 176 Queens Drive, Liverpool, L13 0AL. Register to attend in-person here.
Those interested will only need to attend one of these sessions.
Please do share this training opportunity with anyone within your organisation or network who you think will benefit.
For more information, please contact Dr Naomi Maynard on [email protected] or telephone 07835 947583.
Where: Liverpool Archdiocesan Office, Croxteth Drive, Liverpool, L17 1AA
Our next event for Community Food Spaces in Liverpool will be focusing on supporting refugees and asylum seekers in our communities.
For this lunchtime session we will be joined by Annette James from Micah Liverpool and Ewan Roberts from Asylum Link alongside experts by experience who will be sharing their experience working with and living as asylum seekers and refugees in Liverpool.
It will be an opportunity for Community Food Spaces (food pantries, food clubs, social supermarkets, community kitchens, community food growing spaces) to come together and learn more about the support in place across the city for people seeking asylum and refugees, and to discuss ways to develop community food provision for this group.
Refreshments and a light plant-based lunch will be provided.
The Independent Food Aid Network UK (IFAN) has been working with 60 local authorities to develop cash-first leaflets, a resource co-designed between IFAN and local areas for people facing financial crisis, and any support workers, to quickly see available advice and cash first support options and which local agencies are best placed to help.
Join us for a one hour online webinar and discussion to hear from IFAN about how these resources have been used in other areas, and then together explore if this is something we would find useful to be produced for the city.
Liverpool-based organisations. We are looking for representatives from our local authority, Liverpool’s Citizens Advice Bureau, emergency food providers including foodbanks and advice providers to attend this discussion.
This is an online webinar, please register via Eventbrite to receive the zoom code.
Our global food system has become increasingly complex, fragile and unsustainable.
Food that was once grown locally is now flown in from thousands of miles away, which has devastating environmental, social and economic impacts.
Things need to change.
By reimagining our future food neighbourhoods to include things such as publicly accessible edible hedges, community gardens, and independent food shops, we can reclaim our local food system.
Join Feeding Liverpool and Hope Community Garden in this interactive workshop at the Open Eye Gallery Wednesday 9th March 11am-1pm where we’ll be exploring how we can bring affordable good food back into our local neighbourhoods.
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 at least £4.25 each week that can be spent on fruit and vegetables, pulses, milk, baby formula, and Healthy Start vitamins – enabling women who have little disposal income to be able to prioritise healthy food and increase their vitamin and mineral intake.
Feeding Liverpool would like to bring together lead volunteers and staff members who run Liverpool-based food clubs, pantries and food unions to provide an update about the digitisation of the Healthy Start Scheme and to collectively identify any challenges and solutions to accepting Healthy Start Scheme pre-payment cards within our community food spaces.
If you are an organisation who is already accepting payments via the Healthy Start Scheme pre-payment cards do get in touch with Naomi on [email protected] as we’d love to have a conversation prior to the meeting.
With Feeding Liverpool and Liverpool Food Growers Network
This lunchtime session will explore how to establish and develop partnerships between community food growing spaces and other community food spaces such as food pantries, food hubs, community shops, and community kitchens.
It is an opportunity for representatives from both groups to network, share experiences, ask questions, and discuss future projects.
Refreshments and a light plant-based lunch will be provided. Speakers to be confirmed.
Who: Community Food Growers and other Community Food Spaces in the City of Liverpool
When: 11:30am – 2pm, Wednesday 9th February 2022
Where: Roots in the City, St. Michael in the City, Upper Pitt Street, L1 5BD
How: Booking required due to limited capacity.
For more information, please contact:
Jennifer Graham, Feeding Liverpool’s Good Food Programme Network Coordinator: [email protected]
Clara Steiner, Liverpool Food Growers Network Coordinator: [email protected]
In November 2021, in collaboration with Liverpool Cathedral, Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral, and Together Liverpool, we held a pledge event at Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral inviting organisations and residents across the city to publicly pledge their support for Liverpool’s Good Food Plan.
Over 300 people attended in-person and online. Our host for the evening was Paul Beasley from BBC Radio Merseyside. Speakers included Canon Tony O’Brien, Dean of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral; Very Rev Dr Sue Jones, Dean of Liverpool Cathedral; Cllr Abdul Basit Qadir, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods; Melisa Campbell, consultant in Public Health to Liverpool City Council and Co-chair of Liverpool’s Food Insecurity Task Force; Kevin Peacock, trustee of Feeding Liverpool and CEO for St Andrew’s Community Network; Emma Revie, CEO for Trussell Trust; Ian Byrne MP for Liverpool West Derby and co-founder of Fans Supporting Foodbanks; and Dr Naomi Maynard, Feeding Liverpool’s Good Food Plan Programme Director.
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
On stage, alongside Paul and the speakers of the evening, were Claire and Gill from More Than Minutes, drawing visual minutes of the event’s important messages.
To mark the opening of the evening, we heard pledges of support from Archbishop Malcolm McMahon for the Archdiocese of Liverpool and Bishop Paul Bayes for the Liverpool Diocese. Paul Beasley said, “Liverpool is a city with a big heart, and no matter how hard things get, we always come together.”
Canon Tony O’Brien and Very Rev Dr Sue Jones explained how the cathedrals worked together to bring the pledge evening to life.
Representing Good Food Plan partner Liverpool City Council was Cllr Abdul Basit Qadir Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods. Cllr Qadir announced Liverpool City Council’s pledge of £150,000 towards Liverpool’s Good Food Plan and said, “Food is a very powerful tool that we have at our disposal. It brings communities together.”
Cllr Abdul Basit Qadir Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods
Melisa Campbell, consultant in Public Health to Liverpool City Council, and Co-chair of Liverpool’s Food Insecurity Task Force introduced the plan, why we need it and how the plan has been developed so far; “Food Insecurity has been increasing in Liverpool for the last 10 years. This isn’t something that’s happened as a result of the pandemic, but it has been exacerbated. What we’ve realised from this first phase of our work is that we probably don’t fully understand the extent of food insecurity in Liverpool. There’s much more work to do to recognise the full scale of what we need to address.”
Kevin Peacock, trustee of Feeding Liverpool and CEO for St Andrew’s Community Network explained the five goals of the Good Food Plan:
Kevin said, “I’ve seen the power of community-based action to tackle some of the problems that we have. Food insecurity is systemic and we need to reconstruct that system. I believe we can create a city where everyone can eat good food.”
Our guest speaker was Emma Revie, CEO of The Trussell Trust who pledged to fund the role of a Development Worker within the Feeding Liverpool team. Emma, giving a national context to food insecurity, said, “I’m not joking that I’d love to be out of a job. In order to bring about an end to food banks, we need to see systemic change. We need our services to be well-coordinated and sufficiently resourced. It’s also so important that we engage with people with lived experience. This is a plan that is shaped by people with lived experience.”
Ian Byrne MP, co-founder of Fans Supporting Food Banks and the Right to Food Campaign, and MP for Liverpool West Derby, looking at the work happening locally to combat food insecurity, said, “I’m not going to stand here tonight and bring good tidings. We’ve got an estimated 32% of adults in this city experiencing food insecurity. Political decisions have life and death consequences. But there are glimmers of hope.”
Ian Byrne MP for Liverpool West Derby and co-founder of Fans Supporting Foodbanks
Dr Naomi Maynard, our Good Food Plan Programme Director, called us all to continue to support the #RightToFood campaign and Trussell Trusts’ Hunger-Free Future campaign, for businesses to sign up to the Real Living Wage, and for people and organisations to join the #GoodFoodLiverpool movement by signing up to our mailing list.
Public Pledges
The evening ended with public pledges from local and national organisations.
Andrew Forsey for Feeding Britain pledged £30,000 for the development of community food spaces across the city.
Dave Kelly from Fans Supporting Foodbanks pledged to relaunch the #RightToFood campaign.
Food Cycle Liverpool pledged to open two new community food spaces across Liverpool and join the Food Alliance.
Together Liverpool pledged to support the good food plan as they grow their Network of Kindness across the city.
VS6 Partnership pledged to use their networks to disseminate the five goals across the city region and beyond.
Our final public pledge came from Paul Beasley who pledged to speak about Liverpool’s Good Food Plan regularly on BBC Radio Merseyside.
We asked attendees and those watching online to pledge their support through our website or on pledge cards.
Pledge your support towards creating a city where everyone can eat good food
We want to live in a city where everyone can eat good food. But we cannot achieve this alone, everyone in Liverpool has a role to play in making this vision a reality.
Hundreds of residents and organisations have been involved in co-producing the first phase of Liverpool’s Good Food Plan.
This plan addresses key issues related to the food we eat in Liverpool including:
• 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
Join us at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral alongside the city’s leaders, businesses, community groups and residents to explore what we can do together to create a city where everyone can eat good food on Wednesday 10th November at 7pm – 8.30pm. Register via Eventbrite
There will be opportunities both on the night and afterwards for residents, organisations, and businesses to pledge their support towards creating a city where everyone can eat good food. Please visit this page for pledge ideas.
Who’s the event for?
Everyone! This event aims to bring together residents, city leaders, business owners, community volunteers; anyone who is passionate about tackling food insecurity, interested in the development of the city, who wants to come along or who wants to know more about how they can be a part of creating a city where everyone can eat good food.
Online Access
If you are unable to attend in person, the event will be live-streamed. Details for the live stream will be available shortly.
Parking
Parking is available at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
Enquiries
For enquiries about the event please contact Jennifer Graham at [email protected]
For venue enquiries, including questions about access, please contact Claire Hanlon at [email protected]
Register
Register here to attend in-person. Details about how to register for the live stream will be available shortly.
This event is co-hosted by Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool Cathedral, Feeding Liverpool and Together Liverpool.
The Launch of Feeding Liverpool took place on Friday 20th May 2016 at LACE (Liverpool Archdiocesan Centre for Evangelisation), Sefton Park, Liverpool
More than eighty people attended the launch of Feeding Liverpool, a group bringing together people who are concerned about food poverty in Liverpool.
Feeding Liverpool is one of a growing network of local projects following the Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger in the UK published in December 2014 and called Feeding Britain: A strategy for zero hunger in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Feeding Liverpool is an initiative of Churches Together in Merseyside and Region. This is appropriate because faith groups are so often involved in the provision of food banks and other food projects but we have no intention of going it alone.
We aim to bring together people who are concerned about food poverty:
First – to share good practice about emergency provision;
Second – to campaign for change in those policies that cause or reinforce poverty;
Third – to raise public awareness about the extent of food poverty and the damaging effects of austerity measures on welfare provision.
We also want to contribute to other efforts in the city to tackle food poverty such as the City Council’s Food Poverty Strategy Group at which Feeding Liverpool is being asked to take a lead role in engaging with local communities and learning from people’s lived experience. As many of our participants are those on the frontline of provision, our key strength is to provide what Bishop Paul Bayes refers to as ‘a line of sight to the street and back’ in order to gain an understanding of the reality of food poverty and its implications – not just for providers and policy makers, but for all of us who aspire to live in a society that is built around fairness and the wellbeing of all.
Feeding Liverpool is co-chaired by Bishop John Rawsthorne, (retired Bishop of the
Catholic Diocese of Hallam and former Auxiliary Bishop in Liverpool) and Professor Hilary Russell (Professor Emeritus at Liverpool John Moores University European Institute of Urban Affairs and leader of the Together For the Common Good [T4CG] research process).
Messages of support were displayed at the launch from Frank Field MP, co-chair of Feeding Britain, Mayor Joe Anderson and Bishop Paul Bayes (Anglican Bishop of Liverpool)
Speakers included Louise Ellman MP, Stephen Twigg MP, Niall Cooper (National Director of Church Action on Poverty), Councillor Jane Corbett (Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion, Fairness and Equalities), Kevin Peacock (CEO of St Andrews Community Network), Lynda Batterbee (Area Manager for the Trussell Trust), Archbishop Malcolm McMahon (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool) and Rev Phil Jump (Free Church Moderator for Merseyside).
Photos, comments and video clips are available on Twitter
You can find the Press Release about the launch event here
You can find the programme from the launch event here
You can find the PowerPoint from the launch event here
