Agenda item

The vision of the Medway Food Partnership (MFP) is to create an environment that supports sustainable access to affordable healthy food. This is to improve knowledge about nutrition along with cooking and growing skills for all, building healthier communities and better futures for everyone in Medway.

The Medway Food Strategy supports the food partnership by providing a structured framework that align with the goals and objectives.

Discussion:

The Public Health Consultant and Strategic Head of Service introduced the report which presented the draft Medway Food Strategy.  The strategy’s purpose was to support the Medway Food Partnership (MFP) by providing a structured framework that aligned with the MFP’s goals and objectives to create an environment that supported sustainable access to affordable healthy food by improving knowledge about nutrition, along with cooking and growing skills for all, building healthier communities and better futures for everyone in Medway.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments, which included:

·         Engagement – in response to a question about consultation, officers explained that a great deal of purposeful engagement had taken place including targeted surveys and focus groups undertaken with the support of the University of Greenwich.

·         Fast food outlets near schools – reference was made to the Council’s Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) which restricted the hours of operation of hot food outlets within 400m from schools. It was asked whether this was something that could be explored in relation to applying the same restrictions to street trading within the Council’s Licensing Policy (any changes made to Licensing Policy would be a matter for Cabinet).  This suggestion was welcomed and officers undertook to explore the possibility with colleagues in Licensing, adding that that the SPG was being reviewed in the context of the emerging Local Plan to explore if there were opportunities to strengthen this further.

·         Cookery courses – in response to a question about take up and feedback of the cookery courses, officers explained there was a whole suite of activity around cooking that happened in addition to those run by Public Health, particularly in schools but take up of the Public Health Team’s cookery sessions had included involvement of 405 families within the last year.

·         Community Garden Projects – in response to a question about how organisations could become involved in the project, officers explained that they welcomed participation from many organisations and Ward Councillor intel was a great resource in making those connections. More information would be provided to the Member on how to get involved.

·         Ethnic minority groups – in response to a question as to why non-white British groups were at a higher risk of food insecurity than other white ethnic groups and what mitigations were being put in place, officers explained that there were a number of health inequalities that were linked with those with a protected characteristic and ethnicity was a key determinant. Equally there was an overlap as those from ethnic minority groups were more likely to be within a lower income bracket and therefore food poverty was more likely. The MFP was therefore heavily engaged with a number of community groups to combat the unfair health outcomes for such demographics. Reference was also made to a recent Jollof Rice competition event, hosted by the Mayor, which had been an opportunity for community engagement and collaboration, in sharing cuisine to support health outcomes and community cohesion.

·         Locally grown food – concern was raised about possible loss of farm land due to the impact of housing targets and other factors affecting the farming community.  In response officers reported that a similar discussion had recently taken place at the Medway Health and Wellbeing Board, with planning colleagues present therefore discussion had been within the context of the emerging Local Plan. There was enthusiasm to continue to grow food locally for food production sustainability and the Local Plan was a key asset in how Medway used its space in smart, sustainable ways.

·         Involvement of food businesses – it was confirmed that growing the participation from food businesses was a priority for the MFP as it was believed that health and wealth could co-exist for such companies and small changes to menus could make big changes for the community’s health outcomes.

·         Work with the universities – providing addition information in relation to the work undertaken by the universities in relation to the MFP, officers referred to the nearby Pilkington Building within the local university campus, which was managing to provide healthy food, using locally sourced produce and was achieving almost zero food waste.  The universities were actively supporting the partnership and it was hoped more schools would engage too.

·         Food banks – in response to a question about what was being done to tackle dependency on food banks, officers explained there were good learning examples in other areas where they were creating a shift from dependency to alternative models with better choice for people and opportunities for people to access other support while accessing food banks, and this was a focus for Medway.

Decision:

The Committee recommended the strategy to Cabinet for approval.