Barnsley

“Building a better Barnsley where everyone has the right to the food they need to thrive.”

Affordable food clubs in this area include Good Food Barnsley’s Storehouse and Field.

The mission

Feeding Barnsley’s vision is of a better Barnsley where everyone has the right to the food they need to thrive. To achieve this vision the network aims to:

• Be connected – work in genuine partnerships across the private, public and community sector which focus on action to deliver our vision.
• Be local – always promote the sustainable production and consumption of local food and seek to celebrate a vibrant local food system.
• Be global – find local solutions to global problems. We will seek to reduce, reuse and redistribute surplus food. We will also work with the UK food redistribution network to best serve the people of Barnsley and amplify our voice and achievements at a national level.
• Be engaging – in everything we do we will celebrate choice and help people choose the best things for them.
• Be positive – food and the people of Barnsley are good. We seek to support asset-based projects and stories which keep us focused on the things we can achieve

How we work

The Barnsley Food Access Network was established in 2017 to bring together organisations and individuals helping Barnsley residents who are on low incomes to access food. The network sits within Barnsley council’s Stronger Communities Partnership and Anti-Poverty Delivery Group. The network is steered by a smaller group of partners from private, public, and third sectors who are committed to developing food access in Barnsley.

The group drives Barnsley’s ‘Food Poverty ‘ response, which it has positively reframed as ‘Food Access’. They seek to support the development of partnerships across the private, public and community sector to focus their joint and individual activities. By coordinating efforts and sharing resources they aim to ensure Barnsley citizens have access to the food they need to enjoy happy, healthy and fulfilling lives.

What we’ve achieved

Key activities implemented by the Barnsley Food Access Network include:

• Devising a food pathway – a theoretical framework through which to understand and measure existing supported food access
• Mapping of supported and unsupported food access for Barnsley residents on low income/facing financial hardship
• Project to increase uptake of Healthy Start vouchers
• Delivery of Alexandra Rose food voucher scheme
• FRESH street voucher scheme to increase fruit and vegetable intake
• Coordinated community delivery of school holiday activities with food (Healthy Holidays/HAF)
• Developing a Barnsley “Community Pantry” model with the aim to build food security and community resilience

What’s next

In the coming year the Food Access Network will continue to build and develop the Healthy Holidays/HAF provision in Barnsley, working specifically to ensure that 3^rd sector organisations who have for many years supported and enabled Healthy Holidays activities are able to continue to do so. Further plans are also underway to develop the Barnsley “Community Pantry” model (Storehouse & Field) particularly seeking to improve accessibility and develop empowering forms of supported food access which are community based, providing sustainable longer term support.

Visit the Good Food Barnsley website here.

• 10.96% of adults suffered from hunger
• 14.77% struggled to access food
• 11.31% worried about not having enough food

About this research:

The University of Sheffield have published statistics of UK adult food insecurity at Local Authority scale. You can view the map of measures of food insecurity here.

Hungry is defined as having skipped food for a whole day or more in the previous month or indicated they were hungry but not eaten because they could not afford or get access to food.

Struggle is defined as a positive response to at least one of the following:

• Sought help accessing food
• Skipped or shrank meal
• Gave a reason for not having enough food

Worry is defined as choosing very worried or fairly worried about getting food.