Community News

Community groups

OASES and REfUSE have set up shop at the Pelton Youth Project offering different food tasting and food growing activities each week. This has included sprouting, planting and tasting pea shoots, taste and smell testing and combing flavours, making healthy smoothies with salvaged food, using a bike driven blender and investigating and planting culinary herbs.

The sessions at the TCR Hub, Barnard Castle, have focussed on consultation with staff and volunteers on garden reclamation, renovation and utilisation, with the aim of increasing fruit and vegetables for use in the community café.
 
The focus of OASES’ support at Ushaw Moor Community Garden is to increase community involvement. Sessions have been delivered for children and young people as part of a Sunday midday programme using sensory and survival science in the garden – tasting, smelling and dissecting of garden foods and their seeds.
Engagement activities around seeds and growing were also provided at the garden’s harvest fete.

Sunniside Community Association has run a summer community garden week. This transformed an allotment into Sunniside Community Garden. The plot was cleared, levelled, and raised beds created. In addition, a space at the back of the community centre has been cleared to grow ‘pick and come again’ salads to be used in the community café.

Schools
 
Newker Primary School has revitalised its growing area ready to plant, grow, eat and cook at after-school sessions next year.
West Pelton Primary School has constructed three new raised beds, and an after-school family gardening club has started. During the gardening sessions the children learned about seeds and planting them, decorated pots and taken seeds home to grow, learned to care for the plants and made cress heads to look after. The children also tasted new foods, planted container herbs and tasted and smelled them as part of a sensory approach encouraging children to eat a wider range of fresh foods.
Montalbo Primary School, already has a well-established garden and the after-school sessions have concentrated on planting up the ploytunnel and encouraging families to grow at home.
At Durham Academy work is focussing on re-establishing their growing area during the autumn and winter so growing can begin next spring.
Stanley Crook Primary School has revitalised its grounds with four themed beds, encouraging the growing of fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers. The after-school sessions used a range of engagement activities to encourage food growing and the exploration of new foods.

What’s next?
A further nine communities have now been recruited for years two and three of the project. Many of the community groups already work with local schools, so these relationships will be maintained and extended. The communities are:

• Shildon – Shildon Alive and three local schools
• Peterlee – East Durham Trust with Lowside Allotments and two local schools
• Stanhope – Root and Branch Café and Stanhope Barrington CE Primary School
• West Cornforth – Cornforth Partnership and West Cornforth Primary School
• Blackhill – Blackhill and Consett Community Garden/Blackfyne Allotments and Growing Healthy with Derwentside College
• Newton Aycliffe – Great Aycliffe Garden Guild and a local school
• Spennymoor – Spennymoor Youth and Community Association and two local schools
• Stanley - South Stanley Partnership and a local School
• Trimdon Village – Trimdon Community Garden and a local school

Food Durham Events

Food Durham delivered its first two events in October. The School and Community Food and Growing Event highlighted the wonderful work schools and communities are doing to improve our food system through their food and growing activities and promoted the benefits of schools and communities working together. The event was hosted by Durham Gilesgate Primary School and included a visit to their wonderful community allotment. Presentations were given by Shildon Alive, Montalbo Primary School, OASES, REfUSE and Growing Healthy and wonderful surplus food refreshments were provided by REfUSE.

News from Food Durham Partners

Solving School Food – A Practical and Dynamic Approach
This Food Active blog is by Dr Kelly Rose, Public Health Advanced Practitioner at Durham County Council, is about the recently published ‘Doing school food!’ toolkit, and the importance of a collaborative, whole school approach to creating a healthier school food environment. 
Food Active | Guest blog: Solving School Food – A Practical and Dynamic Approach
 
Eat Smart
This is the impact report of the Eat Smart programme in County Durham by REfUSE. Eat Smart is an educational programme that engages primary school pupils in the causes of food waste and enables them to take action.
Eat Smart Report or email: jill.essam@oases.org.uk for a copy

National News and Campaigns

There has been lots of food system’s work taking place nationally. Campaigns, manifestos, school curriculum work and good practice case studies. Hopefully, there is something of interest below. Click the links to read more:

• Who are the Belly Bugs and how can they help childhood health?

Belly Bugs is a curriculum resource that teaches children about the gut biome.

Who are the belly bugs? | MyNutriWeb Blog

• Landworkers Alliance’s New Manifesto

Ahead of the General Election which is due to take place before January 2025, the Landworkers Alliance has published a new manifesto which lays out their vision for a more equitable, ecological and resilient food, farming and land-use system. 

LWA PUBLISHES NEW MANIFESTO FOR FOOD, FARMING AND FORESTRY - Landworkers Alliance

• Save British Family Farms

Riverford’s Fair to Farmers Charter.

Save British family farms - sign the petition (getfairaboutfarming.co.uk)

• Six approaches to Bridge the Gap

Bridging the Gap (so that food that is good for the planet is affordable for everyone) highlights six areas for focus.

Six approaches to Bridge the Gap | Sustain (sustainweb.org)

• End school food postcode lottery

You can help us make this happen by writing to your MP now to stand up for the children in your area and end the school food postcode lottery now!

https://sustainweb.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=778414e745d27e5aebf965e24&id=2900df5403&e=3e60a3532b
 

• No net zero without fixing fertiliser

The Soil Association has initiated a new petition asking the government to take urgent action on fossil fuel-based fertilisers.

No net zero without fixing fertiliser | Soil Association

• Leaky food grid

The UK food grid is leaking wealth and failing us. Why we are in this mess? Latest blog by our Head of Farming explores how we create supply chains that are better for people, farmers, and the planet.

The leaky food grid is failing us, farmers and the environment | Sustain (sustainweb.org)

• School Farmers’ Markets

Food for Life has a curriculum-linked resource and toolkit for schools wanting to host School Farmers Markets – our approach is school (and largely pupil) led, is an enterprise project as well as one that creates a function for the school as a community food hub from which the school and local producers can sell and local families can easily access fresh, local produce that is priced affordably.  Our resources on this topic are on our Learning & Skills hub here:

https://www.foodforlife.org.uk/skills/farming/school-farmers-markets

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