How Feeding Bristol is Tackling food insecurity

In the blog post below, Maurice Di Rosso, Project Manager of Feeding Bristol, describes the excellent work the initiative is doing to improve food security in Bristol. Find out about actions you can take on Food Equality as an individual and an organisation, as a contribution to Going for Gold.

Feeding Bristol is dedicated to driving systemic change to increase food security across all social and cultural communities of Bristol – ultimately striving for ‘Zero Hunger’. We’re aiming to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of immediate provision for those in need, as well as influencing long-term local economic and national policy changes that aim to improve food security to all Bristolians.

In order to focus our efforts in achieving this mission, we have four key strategic priorities. These priorities were developed in collaboration with the city through a workshop in July 2017 that included nearly 100 participants from all areas of the food and charity sector. Over the next couple of months, we will be establishing Working Groups, aligned to each of these priorities. The Working Groups will work with existing community groups. There is a lot of amazing work already occurring in Bristol – we hope to provide a platform that allow people and groups to come together to share and learn from one another, allowing continual growth across Bristol and further progress towards a zero-hunger city. If you are interested in finding out more or being involved in the Bristol network, please contact us.

The key strategic priorities:

The Stakeholder Engagement Group

Since registering as a charity in March 2018, Feeding Bristol is continuing to build its network of partners across the city in an effort to bring everyone together with similar aspirations – this includes people and organisations ranging from local restaurants, charities, retail, manufacturing, social enterprise, academics, chefs and government. Through a diverse range of thinking, we will be able to work together in our efforts to effectively address the systemic factors that cause food insecurity.

Examples of Feeding Bristol projects:

FOOD Clubs

June 2019 saw the launch of two FOOD Clubs (‘food on our doorstep’) in our Bristol Children Centres. In partnership with Family Action, BCC Early Years and FareShare South West, this membership-based model provides an affordable top-up of groceries on a weekly basis. With refrigerators included, we can provide a very high-quality range of food to the members. The parcels of food received by the members will vary week to week, however, the intention is to provide a top-up to the weekly groceries, and not a complete replacement. At £3.50 fee per week for the members, they receive approx. £20 of fresh and high-quality food. Thanks to all the partners for making this initiative happen. We will be launching more FOOD Clubs over the coming months across Bristol – keep an eye on the the Feeding Bristol website for future details.

Nearly 11,000 children in Bristol are registered for free school meals, this is nearly 20% of all children. Through conversations with teachers and community organisation, we know there are even more children not included in this number, who struggle to have access to nutritious and tasty meals on a daily basis. This struggle becomes even more difficult during the school holidays.

Healthy Summer School Holidays 2019

Having not received any funding from Central Government for these upcoming summer holidays, Feeding Bristol launched an appeal to the city – local businesses, council and partner organisations have done an outstanding job at coming together to help us aim to deliver the ‘Healthy Holidays’ project.

In partnership with FareShare South West, and in collaboration with approx. 150 holiday club providers, activities and other community-based activities for children, we aim to provide 50,000 nutritious and tasty meals to children across the 6 weeks of the summer holidays.

Thanks for reading!