Date of event: 7th April 2010Organised by: Target Wellbeing
Venue: Rice Lane City Farm, North Liverpool
Report by: Rob Squires, Target Wellbeing Network Co-ordinator (3rd Sector)
Spring Into Enterprise is the latest Target: Wellbeing regional networking event focussing on healthy eating, which was held at Rice Lane City Farm in Liverpool, on April 7th.
The event was attended by 22 individuals from accross the region, and from a variety of different organisational types, including Target: Wellbeing projects, Liverpool and Ellesmere Port PCTs and nutritional staff from St.Helens MBC.
The main theme
of the day was sustainable enterprise for food projects, including those involved in production, access, cooking and nutrition. To this end we brought in Mark Simmonds and Ruth Kelly from Making Local Food Work, who gave respective talks on Governance and Legal structures, and on Food Co-ops.
Many thanks to Rice Lane City Farm, and Roma in particular, for hosting the day, and making everybody feel welcome.
Also many thanks to the Knowsley based Target: Wellbeing funded project called Village Farm Cooks (or Cafe Society), who did a fantastic job cooking for the event.
Following lunch, we had a workshop session. Despite the fact it was the dreaded 'graveyard shift' and that we were in a stiffling polytunnel, we managed to have an interesting discussion about how to make food projects more sustainable and mutually supportive.
It is nearly a year since I last visited Rice Lane. In this time the horticultural area on the farm has been transormed, as a result of the Target: Wellbeing funding. I am very excited to see how much this project will have progressed by the end of TWB, and what will happen to it after that. Rice Lane is a brilliant project that has been running for 30 years, with the support of the local community, in a difficult economic environment. Walking around the farm, and the woodlands, I could not help feel that there is still much untapped potential for this land. Financial constraints, and the capacity of the small team of dedicated staff are major limiting factors here. I hope that Target: Wellbeing, in addition to providing funding, can help this project, by encouraging statuatory bodies and funding bodies to see the huge contribution this project makes to the area, and to continue to support it in the development of all its potential.
You can download resources from the day, including reports, photographs, and weblinks, here at the main Target: Wellbeing website.
