Cook 4 Life Harvest Celebration

Date of event: 15th September 2009
Organised by: NCVO
Venue: Offshoots Permaculture, Burnley
Report by: Rob Squires, Wellbeing Network Co-ordinator (Third Sector)

This was the third regional networking event that I have organised for Target: Wellbeing, the objective being to connect people accross the region doing work around healthy eating. The day followed the same format as the mental health and physial activity events in July, in that it was headlined by a talker from Government Office North West. On this occasion it was Angela Towers, who is the lead on Food and Health Issues at GONW, and also at the FSA (Food Standards Agency). Angela gave a fine presentation about the work of these two agencies, and how they support 3rd Sector projects such as those in Target: Wellbeing, as well as impressing upon the group, how vital the work of our projects are to regional healthy eating strategies. (A copy of Angela's presentation is available on request .. please email me.)

Angela's presentation was delivered in a yurt, which is a traditional Tibetan structure. The yurt was lined with straw bales, and was filled with 16 enthusiastic participants. These included three people from Making Local Food Work, which is a national infrastructure project supporting local food enterprises. One of these was Maressa Bossano, who supports the Food C0-ops programme, and traveled all the way from Hastings especially to see us!

With the approach of the autumn equinox, and the end of the growing season, the day also included a harvest celebration lunch, where participants brought along fruit from the land, and dishes made from ingredients from their projects. Following this was a fascinating tour of Offshoots Permaculture project by Phill Dewhurst. Offshoots is managed by Groundwork East Lancs, and is part of the Target: Wellbeing programme. It is a flagship project in Burnley, demonstrating many features of sustainable living, including food growing, community composting, compost toilets, renewable energy and sustainable building.

Follow up:
I am already planning a follow-up for this event, which will take place at Rice Lane City Farm in Liverpool next year. Making Local Food Work will headline this event, and the theme will be around social enterprise skills sharing for Target: Wellbeing food projects. The event will also be timed to co-incide with the lambing season, and participants will be able to get involved in this. A couple of days after the Harvest Celebration event at Offshoots, I visited Rice Lane, for a planning meeting with Roma Margret. At the same time I organised a three way meeting with Nicola Lee who is the director of food with Liverpool MBC. Both Nicola and I had a fascinating morning learning about the work of the farm, and meeting some of the rare livestock that are bred there.