Taking action on food poverty
Brighton & Hove is leading the way in tackling food poverty in the city.
Progress on our Food Poverty Action Plan shows that we have had an impressive 93% success rate over the first three years.
There are 84 actions in the report and we have made great progress on 78 of them.
Some of the recent action we’ve taken as part of the plan includes:
- Integrating many of our food banks with other services including money advice and welfare support.
- Promoting Healthy Start vouchers for free milk, vitamins, food and vegetables to families on a lower income.
- Expanding the Chomp lunch and activity clubs to address school holiday hunger to 12 sites across the city.
Brighton & Hove was one of the first cities to develop a Food Poverty Action Plan which takes a citywide approach to tackling food poverty.
Led by the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, the action plan is being delivered by a wide range of local agencies including the NHS, Brighton Housing Trust and dozens of other groups.
Staff from the council’s adult social care, children’s services, housing, transport, welfare reform and public health teams have been working on the actions to tackle food poverty and train front-line staff to give advice to people of all ages who are struggling to afford decent nutrition.
Councillor Karen Barford, Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board said: “It’s fantastic that Brighton & Hove has been recognised as a real pioneer in helping to tackle food poverty. We share our good practice across the country and initiatives, such as Sugar Smart have now been rolled out nationally.
“However, we know we still have a lot more to do. One in five people in the city don’t feel they have enough money to meet their basic living costs. This leads to skipping meals, reducing meal size and eating less healthy options.
“The Food Poverty Action plan demonstrates the scale of food poverty in the city and how joined up working can improve the outcomes for our residents. We can only make a real difference by working together with other organisations across the city to make sure people get the information, advice and support they need.”
The latest update on the action plan went to the Health & Wellbeing Board on Tuesday 10 July.
Have a look at the Brighton & Hove Food Poverty Action Plan progress report to find out more about what’s being done.