Now is the time to reflect on what a brilliant event the Food Summit was. Over 80 of you showed up to join the discussion on building a Good Food Movement in Lewes District. We had representation from all age groups from 18 to the over 65s and from a wide range of different sectors.
Thank you to our brilliant speakers. We heard from 6 community food projects and from 6 individuals working on sustainability across Lewes District; from wine production at Plumpton College, to Lewes Farmers Market, to compost and the role it plays in our food systems.
We also heard from Carl Walker about his research on Hunger Trauma and Dignity principles when it comes to food support, and from Jane Perry on the national work happening to ‘Challenge Poverty’ and ‘Speak Truth to Power’. A huge thank you to the participants from the Feeling the Pinch project who joined me on a panel to talk about their personal experiences of food insecurity. And a thank you to Alex Britten-Zondani from Food Matters for stepping in to co-host the day with me in the absence of our Chair Stef Lake, who was at home with Covid, and another thank you to our facilitators who chaired the breakout groups and of course to Plumpton College for being excellent hosts in their wonderful AgriFood centre.
It’s hard to capture in words the brilliance of seeing so many people in one room wanting to build a better food future for our area.
This year the theme of the summit was ‘Sustainability’ but it’s impossible to think of food partnership work without touching on the injustices and inequalities in the food system. This was the million dollar question of the day: How do balance food equality with food sustainability
Did we crack it? Of course not, not in one afternoon. But I really hope we can build on this movement and compel some of you to come forward and get involved in the process. It’s sometimes hard to know where we should be focussing our efforts as there are so many worthy causes but bringing food equality and food sustainability together is a huge step in the right direction, as the two are not mutually exclusive and in fact, food justice must consider the impact our food systems have on our environments in order to protect future generations.
Get in touch to get involved in shaping the future of Lewes District Food Partnership info@lewesdistrictfoodpartnership.org
