Agenda item

Gilly Brenner and Kelsey Broomhead to report

Gilly Brenner, Public Health Consultant and Kelsey Broomhead, Public Health Practitioner Apprentice, presented an update on the Rotherham Food Network with the aid of the following PowerPoint presentation:

The Aim of the Rotherham Food Network-

•         Over the past 18 months, the network had brought together key stakeholders with an interest in food to work together and share best practice in Rotherham.

•         The network had used the Sustainable Food Places framework as a structure to focus on six key issues.

Food Governance and Strategy-

•         Created the Rotherham Food Network.

•         Included seventeen stakeholder organisations and sixty-eight members.

•         Agreed the Terms of Reference.

•         Gained Sustainable Food Places membership (May 2023).

•         Developed the first action plan (2023 – 2025).

•         Food impact and progress monitoring dashboard was being drafted.

•         The joint strategic needs assessment included a section on food and diet.

Good Food Movement-

•         Adopted a compassionate approach, understanding the context regarding eating and living.

•         Would engage with the Healthy Holiday provision.

•         Synergy bid, would sharing best practice between food partnerships (Sheffield, Rotherham, and Bristol collaboration).

•         Would plan to celebration event to raise awareness of our food movement in Spring 2024.

•         Expanded Rotherhive to include a food section.

Healthy Food for All-

•         Food in Crisis Partnership, focused on a multi-agency approach.

•         Made staff aware of food poverty issues, e.g., Cost of living crisis.

•         Healthy Start voucher, increased the uptake in those eligible (Jan 23 68%, October 23 78%)

•         Breastfeeding Friendly Borough.

•         Participated in campaigns such as Veg Power, through the school catering provision.

Sustainable Food Economy-

•         Takeaway planning within Rotherham, limited takeaways that could be built or licensed within an 800m radius of a school.

•         Rotherham Food Network would attend ‘The Voice’ town centre business meetings to promote and engage on food and the network.

•         Healthy Start Voucher scheme would increase the accessibility to use the vouchers by getting more businesses on board.

Catering and Procurement-

•         Rotherham Council School Catering retain Bronze Food for Life, Riverside Catering was featured as the Soil Association’s caterer of the month in their August newsletter.

•         Catering staff had taken part in additional training such as eating disorders and compassionate approach.

Food for the Planet-

•         The Council had declared a climate emergency.

•         Love Food, Hate Waste Campaign.

•         Joint food waste strategy between Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster.

•         WRAP project with Rotherham Minster food bank used labels to reduce food waste.

•         Healthy Foundation Award application included elements of growing and recycling within the award scheme.

Discussion ensued on the presentation with the following issues raised and/or clarified:

•         The action plan did not cover all the current activities, it reflected the actions with momentum at that point in time.

•         There had been work completed to improve the take up on school meals and encouraging children to eat healthier at school.

•         There was an example provided of a recent case, where new planning regulations were implemented in a situation where a café had decided to change to a takeaway.

Resolved:- That the Health and Wellbeing Board:

1)    Noted the update.