Food working group

The Food working group will look to work with organisations, including Gosport Borough Council, to:

• Promote sustainable food production, consumption and resource efficiency.
• Reduce, redirect and recycle food, packaging and related waste.

Tasks will be decided by the working group but could include:

Sustainable production & consumption

• Help shape the Local Development Plan and other planning initiatives to protect, enhance and make more use of open spaces for community food growing and general enhancement of natural environments.
• Develop a food growing network to link groups and pool resources.
• Provide more training, advice and information sessions to support more people to grow their own and develop more sustainable lifestyles and behaviours.
• Deliver a Borough wide campaign to promote a shift to sustainable food including fresh, unprocessed, seasonal, local, organic, less and better meat and dairy, high animal welfare, Fairtrade.

Waste reduction

• Ensure the Food Waste Hierarchy is incorporated into and shapes an integrated Borough wide food waste policy and strategy that minimises food and packaging waste, eliminates food waste from landfill and ensures surplus food and food waste are diverted to the most appropriate purposes.
• Work with the local Council to establish a Food Waste Collection scheme for homes and businesses that re-directs food and food related waste for composting, energy recovery or animal feed and explore opportunities to promote community composting.
• Raise public awareness of food waste and its impact on climate change; encourage them to measure and reduce it via a campaign.
• Raise the nutritional standards of food aid hampers on offer.
• Deliver skills workshops such as cookery, recycling, growing, composting.

Initial project:

The working group will initially be looking at supporting the Hampshire Kitchen Heroes scheme with the aim of engaging more people in taking action to reduce food waste, including:

• Increasing the number of people signed up as Food Waste and Composting Community Champions - training available.
• Getting Gosport higher up on the area leadership board for actions taken to reduce food waste.
• Getting more people signed up and on to the individual leadership board (currently 2 in the top 10).