Posted 1st Jul 2025

 

June 2025

Supporting action towards food for healthy and sustainable lives

Food Durham, the Food Partnership for County Durham, is a cross-sector, multi-stakeholder collective of individuals and organisations interested in co-creating a better food system.  We're working together for healthier, greener, fairer food for all. 

 

Message from the Coordinator

I hope you are all well and enjoying this warm weather and the occasional shower.

Read on for some updates and news on community gardening, community kitchens, food banks, food education and sustainable farming conferences and events.

The Food Durham Facebook page is gaining some momentum – please follow us to be first to hear about food action in County Durham.  There’s simply too much to squeeze into a newsletter.  The recent post about our upcoming community gardening event went pretty viral and as a result is now fully booked but do register to join the waiting list in case spaces become available and so we can gauge interest in running something similar again:

Community Gardeners’ Summer Skill Share:
Food Growing for Beginners and Making Your Own Herbal Teas
Monday 23rd June 12.30 - 3.00pm

Meet community gardeners from all over County Durham for a site tour, sessions on food growing basics, and a herbal tea-making workshop at Spennymoor and Tudhoe Community Garden.

Join Waiting List

Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund, Food Durham have been providing direct food growing support to 14 community gardens and schools across County Durham. One of those sites is Silver Tree Primary School (photo below), in Ushaw Moor, where Food Durham renovated the existing school garden, replaced rotten timbers and installed a rainwater harvesting system. OASES project officers ran several sessions with the school children, both in the school garden and down the road at the Ushaw Moor Community Garden.

Food Durham will be organising a school gardening skill-share event, open to all schools in County Durham. If you work in a school and would be interested in hosting this event, do get in touch with Food Durham Coordinator, Amy: fooddurham@oases.org.uk

If you are interested in connecting with a community garden near you or already involved in one, Durham Community Action’s Community Growing and Food Network is a county-wide network for community gardeners.

Find out more

‘Landed’ Community Kitchen Webinar

Hear about ‘Landed’ Community Kitchen pilot projects in the North of England and learn from other kitchens already working successfully with a local food grower.

Thursday 26 June 2025, 12:00 to 1:00pm


This free webinar by The Real Farming Trust, is for anyone who eats in or works in a community kitchen, grows food and would like to supply a kitchen, is involved in or leading on food strategy, food resilience and community wealth building.

Register here

New working group: “Beyond Food Banks”


Meeting for the first time in May, a network of people wanting to improve food support initiatives is emerging. Attendees included community food support organisations, public sector representatives, academics and those with lived experience of community food support.

The cross-sector group hopes to promote ways of enhancing community food support, including ways to make it more empowering, nourishing, planet-friendly and responsive to individual dietary needs and cultural preferences.

The group are developing a vision and planning a summit in March 2026.

Open to all who want to help move organisations beyond food banks.

Next meetings: 25th June 10-12 at REfUSE and 16th July 10-12 at Shildon Alive

If you'd be interested in attending or want to join the mailing list please email Claire: Claire.Estall@communitiestogetherdurham.org.uk

Community Food Project Funding Opportunities

The Change Lives Today fund, supports people facing poverty and hardship by funding community groups that are increasing access to everyday essentials for local people. Funding  is available to groups meeting immediate needs and might include holiday hunger and community growing projects.

No deadline. £3000.

Point North

The Bupa Foundation Green Community Grant’s programme will fund practical initiatives which benefit both people and the planet's health, with priority given to the regeneration of green spaces for community use, particularly in disadvantaged areas. Examples could include improving a local community garden for community use and recreational activities or creating a community food growing space. Grants of up to £2,000 are available to registered charities, not-for-profit organisations, schools, local authorities, and social housing providers. Open to applications until 30th June 2025.

Bupa Foundation