The Arun & Chichester Food Partnership were delighted to host the Sussex and South Downs Local Food Summit at Brinsbury College last month. Covering the region of East Sussex, Brighton & Hove, West Sussex and parts of Hampshire, the event brought together 37 stakeholders in the local food system, ranging from food producers, retailers, local government officers, Food Partnerships, press and more.
As part of our short project for Sustain towards the Local Food Growth Plan, this day helped us to build the draft action plan, which will have the goal of increasing the amount of agroecological food produced and consumed locally.
Five speakers shared their work in different aspects of the food system, highlighting specific issues and their creative, impactful work to increase access to local food. The speakers were:
- Sophie Robinson, Land Use Plus Project Manager, Brighton & Hove Food Partnership: Sussex Grazed and local meat
- Angela Blair – Food Policy Coordinator, Brighton & Hove City Council: Food economy resilience and the Greater Brighton Food Plan
- Garry Mortimer-Cook – Enterprise Manager, Horsham District Council: How the council supports local food enterprise with Sussex Six
- Jools Lawton – Brighton CSA – Fork and Dig It CIC: Growing with and for the local community
- Fred Duncannon – Owner of Stansted Park Farm Shop and co-founder of The South Downs Food Festival
An expert panel and workshops helped to explore key themes and gave space for co-creating contributions to the draft action plan in the areas of:
- Food production and infrastructure
- Food resilience – planning a long-term future in unstable times with collaboration and coordination
- Skills and careers development
- Consumer demand and education
- The role of local government – opportunities and challenges
Attendees enjoyed a lunch including local, sustainable food and had an optional tour of the farm at Brinsbury College.
The day was highly focused and effective, providing significant contributions to the action plan, building networks and sparking ideas for collaboration.
Attendees rated the day highly and shared what they are taking away from the event –
“(that) collaboration gives us a stronger voice to drive change within local and central government, ensuring food security and education for future generations“
“The belief that support for local food in Sussex is finally generating momentum and hopefully policy, support and actions.”
In addition to personal commitments, attendees have signed up to be part of ongoing conversations via working groups following our five themes.
Altogether, it was an impactful day which brought people together across the entire Sussex region, showing how we can work together on multiple themes to have a greater impact to improve the scale, viability, sustainability and share the benefits of the local food system.
Look out for the next steps of this plan and let us know if you want to be involved.
This work is undertaken as a regional contribution towards Sustain’s Local Food Growth Plan.
