Food Newcastle: Future City Digest

The Core will welcome Food Newcastle on 22 May for a year one update.

Food Newcastle is a city-wide partnership bringing together the public, private, and voluntary and community sectors to improve the local food system and tackle some of Newcastle’s most pressing social, economic and environmental problems through initiatives linked to food.

An initial city wide consultation was held which identified the key stakeholders and issues and led to the formation of the Newcastle Food Charter in mid-2013. The Food Charter established the vision of creating a healthier food culture to improve the quality of lives in Newcastle and set out a holistic set of aims around healthy and sustainable food in the city to guide the work of the wider partnership. The Food Charter also enables support for the initiative from a wide stakeholder group.

In recognition of this preliminary work, Newcastle was selected to be a ‘flagship’ member of the UK Sustainable Food Cities network, becoming one of six UK cities to receive funding for the initiative from The Esmee Fairburn Foundation and the Department of Public Health at Newcastle City Council.

The funding award enabled Food Newcastle to develop and drive forward an ambitious work plan based on a number of strategic objectives. During the past year Food Newcastle has delivered several projects alongside working to create a clear action plan and set of priorities for the next five years.

Bringing the wider partnership together on 22 May offers an opportunity to invite comment on our one to five year strategy and highlight the breadth of achievements that have been realised in year one of the programme. It is also an opportunity to partners to meet one another and connect they work that they are doing with a wider movement for change across the city.