THE
FOOD POVERTY NETWORK - improving access to healthy diets for people on
low income
www.foodpovertyprojects.org.uk
The Food Poverty Network, which was set up in 1995, puts local food
groups - which range from community cafes and food co-ops to cooking clubs
and growing schemes -- in contact with each other. We have more than 500
members, to whom we distribute a quarterly newsletter with information
on projects, funding sources, and relevant policy developments. We also
provide financial help and advice for community groups wishing to run
seminars on food and low income.
For communities contemplating setting up a food project, we have produced
a Toolkit called Making Links, which provides experience-based advice
on setting up, funding, maintaining and evaluating different kinds of
project, and our recent publication SRBs to PCTs: understanding local
structures and area-based initiatives to tackle food poverty has a large
up-to-date section on funding sources. Network members are entitled to
a 50% discount on our publications. Finally, in collaboration with the
Health Development Agency, we run the Food and Low Income Database, which
provides access to a wealth of information on local food projects.
The other role of the Food Poverty Network is to draw on the experience
of our members and feed it back into policy - for example, we have recently
produced 'Food Poverty: Policy Options for the New Millennium', which
has been adopted as the main discussion document for the newly launched
Food Justice Campaign.
Our web site is www.sustainweb.org;
email queries should be directed to Sustain's Food Poverty Network officer,
Sally Cavanagh, on sally@sustainweb.org.
