If you’re involved in a community food project, or just interested in finding out more we hope you will sign up and join us for the first session on Wednesday 4^th November, 4.30-5.30pm, which will focus on Community Food Responses to Covid – the Lockdown Legacy.

Speakers at this event will include: 

Rachel Tweddle, CEO Barnard Castle Hub: Emergency food provision and what comes next.

Vera Zakharov, Local Action Co-ordinator, Sustainable Food Places: Mutual Aid, Good Food Movement the national context and what comes next. 

Contact email: info@fooddurham.net

Background

We know that food insecurity was already a big challenge in County Durham.  Covid-19 has made things much more difficult and there may be worse to come.  In this landscape, informal and community-led food provision has been a lifeline for many people.  Not just a source of food but also kindness and contact for those isolated by their circumstances.  As well as established projects adapting to changing needs, brand new groups have sprung up in response to the emergency.  

We want to celebrate this response because it is amazing.  But we also want to create a space where community food activists can share their experiences, get support and input from others and develop a collective voice, identifying challenges and how we can work together across the food system to address them.

Network meetings will be held virtually on Zoom and will include short presentations by inspirational people from County Durham and beyond.  There will be lots of opportunity for discussion in break-out spaces and we are aiming to hold 6 across the year, each with a theme that is relevant to members.  We deliberately haven’t set a programme as we hope topics will spring up from the discussions.