The Food Poverty Summit, held on 13th November 2018, brought together people from more than 35 local public and community organisations – schools, children’s centres, community projects, churches, local politicians and council officers – to better understand the nature and scope of the problem, hear about inspiring initiatives, propose strategic priorities and make commitments for action.
Download the documents
Karen Inwood, Food Exeter’s Coordinator, outlined the underlying principles, the process of developing the Food Poverty Action Plan, and the Summit aims.
Simon Shaw coordinates Food Power, a UK-wide programme supporting local areas to tackle food poverty and its root causes. He set out the national context and understanding of food poverty, focusing on the impact of low income, and shared experiences from food poverty partnerships around the country.
Dr Rebecca Sandover is Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and a member of the Food Exeter Steering Group, and is supporting the research and evidence gathering.
Dr Rebecca Sandover presented the initial research findings on the impact of food poverty on low income families.
Karen Inwood introduced the theme of child hunger and malnutrition.
Stephen Farmer is Head of Campus at Cranbrook Education Campus and is passionate about supporting disadvantaged students. As well as providing a daily breakfast club, the school has been a key partner in the holiday hunger programme organised by St Sidwell’s Community Centre. Stephen spoke about Cranbrook Education Campus’ student hunger initiatives.
Brad Pearce is the Managing Director of CATERed, a co-operative trading company which is jointly owned by 67 Plymouth schools and Plymouth City Council. He spoke about their holiday hunger programme, which distributes over 600 freshly prepared bagged healthy meals every summer holiday week across Plymouth.
Dr. Rebecca Sandover presented the initial research findings on the food needs of vulnerable adults.
Tarn Lamb is the Chief Executive of Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change, working with local communities to regenerate Cornwall’s long neglected social housing estates. Tarn spoke about initiatives to support vulnerable adults.
Summit participants worked in groups to share their experience and ideas for building a multi-agency strategy and plan of action.
More information
Some of the information and documents which were available at the Summit can be downloaded here:
