Food Newcastle Welcome Newcastle West End Foodbank As New Host.

In December 2022, Food Newcastle welcomed their new hosting organisation, Newcastle West End Foodbank. The Food Newcastle Partnership is a network of local public agencies, businesses, academics, NGOs and individuals, who recognise the key role food can play in dealing with some of today’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges. 

The Partnership is taking a strategic and collaborative approach in transforming our food culture and food system through the delivery of our local framework – the Newcastle Good Food Plan. Under the hosting of Newcastle West End Foodbank, the partnership will be working to implement this plan and support the operations of the 6 thematic sub-groups and related activities. Following our Sustainable Food Places Bronze award in 2019, our aim is to continue to build our food-centred partnership and successfully bid for Sustainable Food Places Silver award status.

Having Newcastle West End Foodbank as the new hosts will bring an exciting new energy to Food Newcastle’s goals as a partnership, and their commitment and experience with the community across Newcastle will be invaluable. Organisations who work directly with the community, like Newcastle West End Foodbank, are trusted voices for the communities they work with, and can be an positive link to making impactful changes and action.

In the first few months of hosting, Newcastle West End Foodbank has hired a Partnership Coordinator, Ellen Holmes, who has been employed as Campaigns Project Worker for Food Newcastle for the past 10 months. During this time, Ellen has been working on the Sustainable Food Places campaigns, Food for the Planet and Good Food Movement alongside Bind, Newcastle’s food waste hub. During her second week in post as Partnership Coordinator, Ellen attended the Sustainable Food Places Annual Conference in Oxford, to meet with other food partnerships, share good practice nationally and learn from the experiences of others. Food Newcastle is one of the flagship members of Sustainable Food Places, which now has more than 80 members across the U.K.

Newcastle West End Foodbank’s CEO John McCorry noted that Food Newcastle “is a really important collaboration with many other brilliant organisations who are committed to creating a sustainable food culture in Newcastle, and are championing the Food Newcastle Good Food Plan. At West End Foodbank, we’re looking forward to working with this established community with the goal of achieving the Sustainable Food Places Silver award.”

Food systems are complex, from food waste to nutrition, to food education and insecurity, as well as many other aspects. Food partnerships are a vital part of coordinating cross-sectoral action plans and food strategies for a whole city. The Food Newcastle partnership provides a crucial intersection of diverse organisations with a wide range of expertise, working together towards the shared goal of a more sustainable food culture in Newcastle. We’re looking forward to seeing how this grows under Newcastle West End Foodbank.

Categorised in: General News

This post was written by Food Newcastle