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As the cost of food and other essentials continues to rise, Feeding Britain is working with partners across the UK to develop sustainable and dignified approaches to protect people from hunger. From affordable food networks to advice services, from fuel vouchers to school holiday programmes, your donation will make a real difference to communities across the UK.

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Liverpool

Feeding Liverpool is the city of Liverpool’s food alliance, connecting and equipping people and organisations to work towards good food for all. Building on our work since 2015 tackling hunger and food insecurity, Feeding Liverpool are developing and driving forward Liverpool’s Good Food Plan in partnership with communities and organisations across the city.

You can view Affordable Food Clubs and other food projects in Liverpool here.

Background

Feeding Liverpool was set up in 2015 as a local pilot of Feeding Britain, an independent charity which was established following the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger in the United Kingdom in 2014. Their report Feeding Britain: A Strategy for Zero Hunger in England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland resonated with the situation on the ground in Liverpool.

Feeding Liverpool was first established through Churches Together in the Merseyside Region and has been led by an ecumenical group working with people of all faiths and none. Our work has centred on bringing together those concerned with hunger and food insecurity in Liverpool.

Since 2019 Feeding Liverpool have been able to grow and develop through a partnership with Together Liverpool, who have supported the network through the role of Dr Naomi Maynard, our Good Food Programme Director.  

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Feeding Liverpool played a key role in the procurement and distribution of food supplies to support and sustain the work of emergency food providers in Liverpool, leading to the Covid Response Project and the Winter Boost project.

We have been part of the City’s Food Insecurity taskforce, responding to the pandemic and working towards the first stages of Liverpool’s Good Food Plan.

One particular aspect of our role is to provide what Bishop Paul Bayes describes as a: “line of sight to the street and back”

We want to ensure the stories of people who have first-hand experience of hunger or food insecurity, and of those who are working in our communities to tackle these issues, are heard by our local and national policy makers.

Our aims: 

  • Create arenas for practitioners to share and shape good practices in relation to good food for all
  • Draw on experiences from the ground to contribute to and influence policy debates locally and nationally
  • Raise awareness and develop greater public understanding of food policy and related issues

Our activities:

  • Hosting events bringing together people in the city working towards good food for all
  • Telling the stories of people who have experiences of hunger and food insecurity
  • Campaigning with local and national partners to tackle the root causes of poverty. Supporting and equipping projects working towards good food for all

Through this work Feeding Liverpool:

  • Host events which bring together people in the city working towards Good Food for all, including people who have experiences of hunger and food insecurity. Our action-focused events seek to inform, enable, connect and inspire. Recent events include Community Growing and Community Gardens on Church Land  and the Impact of Welfare Reforms on the Food Security of Vulnerable People. View more past events here.
  • Tell stories of people who have experiences of hunger and food insecurity. We work to include people who have first-hand experience in local and national policy decisions. We share tools and resources to support organisations supporting people to tell their stories
  • Campaign with local and national partners to tackle the root causes of poverty. We combine storytelling with campaigning to raise and develop public awareness of issues of food policy. Campaigns Feeding Liverpool are supporting include the Right to Food and the Plenty to Share: Abundance and Equality Declaration. View our past campaigns here
  • Support and equip projects working towards good food for all in Liverpool. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Feeding Liverpool partnered with Feeding Britain to support the food supply of emergency food provision in the city. Feeding Liverpool also led the Winter Boost Project, boosting emergency food parcels with fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and eggs.

You can view the Feeding Liverpool 2021 Impact Report here.

Liverpool’s Good Food Plan

Liverpool’s Good Food Plan is a plan that addresses key issues related to the food we eat in Liverpool including:

  • food insecurity
  • access to and take-up of healthy, nutritious food
  • the impact the food we eat is having on our planet
  • and the practices by which the food we eat is produced.

It connects to and builds on existing work in the city and nationally, including Liverpool’s City PlanLiverpool’s Pandemic Pledges, the Poverty Action Group and the Food Insecurity Task Force, Food Power, Liverpool’s Healthy Weight Declaration and Feeding Britain.

Our Vision – Liverpool ‘Good Food City’

This plan is born from the belief that together, we can create a city where everyone can eat Good Food, no matter who they are and where they live.

We believe that we can not only reduce the critical levels of hunger and food insecurity that have been accentuated by the pandemic, but that we can use this pivotal moment in history to work together and change our food system to become a true ‘Good Food City’ and end the need for food banks.

Good Food means different things to different people. We want to continue to involve a wide range of people and organisations in the city to define what Good Food means to them and bring that shared vision to reality together.

Our Five Goals

Goal 1: Good Food at points of crisis

Goal 2: Uncovering the true scale of food insecurity

Goal 3: Enabling food citizenship

Goal 4: Shifting policy and practice

Goal 5: Connecting the community

Read Liverpool’s Good Food Plan here.

Levels of local food insecurity

According to the University of Sheffield’s research into local food insecurity of adults (Jan 2021), in Liverpool:

  • 5.21% of adults suffered from hunger
  • 12.78% struggled to access food
  • 14.35% 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.