- Spade to Spoon Digging Deeper, the refreshed food strategy, was adopted with cross-party political support in 2012
- Harvest Brighton & Hove a city wide project that encourages more food growing was awarded the Best Community Growing Project in 2013 from the Big Lottery’s Local Food Fund. Harvest has helped 51 new community food growing spaces establish bringing the total to 76. Each year 4000 volunteers give 15,000 volunteer hours to food projects across the city
- The 64 primary schools in the council’s school meals contract have achieved the Bronze Food for Life Catering Mark, use free range eggs, fair-trade produce and have Marine Stewardship Council certification for all of their fish served.
- A Good Food Procurement group has been established, bringing together the two universities, BHCC, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and others together to work on good practice in this area. BHCC agreed to introduce minimum standards for food procurement across the Council.
- In just six months 223 tonnes of surplus food was redistributed by Fareshare providing food to residents in need and saving 91 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released through disposal of food to landfill.
- 27 community composting projects have been established, involving 694 households and diverting 60 tonnes of food waste a year.
- A Planning Advice Note for Food Growing has led to 38% of residential development including proposals for food growing compared with <1% before.
- Brighton & Hove Food Partnership and the city’s approach towards a healthy and sustainable food system was recognised by the Sustainable Food Cities Network as a national leader with the model now being adopted by other towns and cities across the country.
- The Sussex Partnership NHS Trust’s demand for sustainable local food has helped to drive economic activity. For example their use of the local market garden supplier proved so successful that the supplier has seen its turnover increase by 30% over the last four years whilst the Trust has reduced its carbon footprint for food miles and waste. The use of local suppliers has proved as cost effective as national suppliers.
Health
The Food Partnership’s Healthy Choice Award for nurseries and playgroups means that over 2000 pre-school children a day now eat healthy meals and snacks.
4012 adults and 457 children have been directed to one of the healthy weight programmes or clinics via the Healthy Weight Referral service since its launch in 2009.