Welcome

Food, glorious food

 

Every day we consume food and make choices about what we want to eat. But does the city we live in influence our meal planning decisions? Bringing together partners from a range of sectors across the region, the Peterborough Food Partnership is on a mission to promote and increase access to local, healthy, and sustainable menus for everyone.

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Is Peterborough a foodie destination? The city might not yet be widely known for its food scene and local cuisine, but this could soon be set to change after the city was recognised with a nationally esteemed Sustainable Food Places award in October 2024. Winning the accolade is a big step forward - and the start of a positive food movement - for a city that was once named the unhealthiest in Britain.

 

The project is being led by the Peterborough Food Partnership, which was formed in 2021 to address growing community needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing together representatives from different food businesses, community groups, and charities from across the region, the partnership became a member of the national Sustainable Food Places network in 2022. The aim is to tackle problems caused by our current food systems: such as diet-related ill health, food poverty, excessive waste, climate change and biodiversity loss.

 

But how can a long-term difference be achieved? The Peterborough Food Partnership believes that food can be part of the solution when tackled through collaborative action at a local level. Healthy eating is essential for a healthy community. So, where do we start? Our food systems involve everyone from farmers and food producers, growers, restaurants, shops, and the citizens themselves as they make daily purchasing choices.

 

Aiming to influence long-lasting change, the partnership wants to develop a more sustainable, healthier, and inclusive food culture for our city that values local produce and independent businesses. Its vision is to promote nutritious food, healthy eating, stimulate the local economy, and encourage decision making that benefits people and the planet.

 

But no single organisation holds the powers, remit, or insight to change the local food system alone. The cross-sector partnership comprises a comprehensive network of representatives from over 100 organisations across the city: including the local farming community, food businesses, the public sector, Peterborough City Council, Peterborough Youth Council, NGOs, academic institutions, community food groups, environmental organisations, community gardens, local growers and more. Decision making is achieved in a collaborative and collective way, agreeing on priorities and action for the local area.

 

Following a series of focus groups with more than 300 residents across the unitary area (exploring what citizens’ experience of food is), online surveys, and a ‘Growing Together’ programme that used art to explore key themes of food, the Peterborough Food Partnership’s work has been recognised with a prestigious Sustainable Food Places Bronze award. The accolade recognises work carried out to find solutions for some of the city’s greatest challenges.

 

‘This is about action, not just words,” explains Lauren Kendrick, Chair of the Peterborough Food Partnership. “Across the city and surrounding areas, we have an amazing array of residents, community groups, growers and other food businesses. Together, we want to create a better, more inclusive food culture for our city that values local produce and independent businesses, reduces waste, and supports local, seasonal and sustainable food production. By bringing together policymakers, businesses, and local communities, we can change policies, tackle food poverty, and promote healthy and sustainable food for all.’

 

To achieve the Sustainable Food Places Bronze award, the team had to evidence key areas of collective research and action. This included building public awareness and a local ‘good food’ movement, tackling diet related ill health, increasing access to affordable healthy food, creating a vibrant and diverse sustainable food economy, revitalising local food supply chains, and tackling the climate and nature emergency.

 

From autumn 2023 through to March 2024, the group’s ‘Growing Together: Exploring and Celebrating Food Systems’ programme, comprising more than 60 free events, attracted around 16,000 attendees. A variety of exhibitions, talks, workshops, discussions, performance, art creation, food shares, poetry, storytelling and more took place. It was a fantastic way to engage local residents and visitors to the city with interactions around food.

 

Lauren explains: Gaining the award is a fantastic achievement of the city. Peterborough Food Partnership has worked hard to bring together different partners and carry out focus groups and citizen surveys, while the ‘Growing Together’ programme brought together thousands of citizens across the city to discuss food systems, plans for the future, and celebrate what is happening in the city. We’re delighted to have this work recognised with an award - it’s a fantastic achievement for Peterborough.’

 

The next step for the partnership will be to use the combination of research and lived experience to inform a food strategy for the city. This will aim to combat some of the region’s biggest food-related challenges - such as food poverty, the loss of independent food producers, and the climate crisis.

 

Get involved

 

Plans are underway for the first Peterborough Food Summit, which will take place later this year. The event will bring together multiple stakeholders and citizens, share the report from the research to-date, and provide an opportunity to collaboratively discuss next steps for the formation of the city’s first food strategy.

 

You can get involved by contacting the Peterborough Food Partnership on flourishpeterborough@gmail.com. For further details visit www.flourishpeterborough.co.uk

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Meet members of the Peterborough Food Partnership…

 

Lauren Kendrick - Founder, Flourish Peterborough

 

Where does your interest in food systems come from?

I am passionate about food. I love eating it, preparing it, talking about it and growing it! Throughout my life I have hosted meals and seen the importance of eating together in order to bring people together. I am also a trained permaculturalist and systems thinking is a key part of understanding the natural world and how our growing spaces link to our communities.

 

How did you become chair of the Peterborough Food Partnership?

Flourish Peterborough was invited to help build the first Peterborough Food Partnership at the start of 2021 because of my success in setting up, developing, running and supporting the Food Poverty Forum, as well as my cross-sector knowledge of food businesses, being a market gardener, working on food projects in Europe and teaching.

 

Part of Flourish Peterborough’s mission is to promote the sustainable development of local food ecosystems - focusing on access to healthy, culturally appropriate, local and sustainable food through community growing, cookery, sharing and celebration. Flourish partners with organisations across the city to support the education and empowerment of citizens as well as leading on research into what is currently happening in the sector.

 

Why does the Peterborough Food Partnership matter?

It’s important to the city because it is a ‘whole system’ approach to food, rather than just focusing on one aspect. Cross sector working and increasing understanding means that decisions can be informed and inclusive. The Peterborough Food Partnership is independent and therefore partners across all sectors are equal in their input into the growth of a strategy. All partners come together over a shared vision and goals. The partnership is politically neutral as well as flexible.

 

Partnerships are effective because they can tackle the fragmented operations of local food systems. They can help coordinate action on opportunities for change. They hold a special position to encourage public, private and third sector agencies to collaborate and share resources, create efficiencies, eliminate duplication and create innovative solutions. We want to ensure we’re building a better future with residents in mind.

 

What do you feel the resulting strategy will achieve for the city?

A shared vision and further cohesion. There is incredible work happening across the Peterborough area to achieve a unifying vision that includes voices from across the different sectors. We are working together for measurable aims, so that it is not just words but instead informs decisions and aids collective decision making.

 

What are the next steps for the Peterborough Food Partnership?

We will be holding the first food summit for the area in 2025. This will be where the report created from the research of the focus groups, residents, businesses and growers surveys will be released, as well as an opportunity for the sectors to share what they are experiencing and agree on some key aspects for the strategy. This will be the first event of its kind in the area and it will be open to all in the Peterborough region.

 

● www.flourishpeterborough.co.uk

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Heidi Latronico-Ferris - Environmental Education Lead, PECT

 

What’s PECT’s role with the Peterborough Food Partnership?

We're delivering food and nutrition in schools across Peterborough as part of the Healthy Schools programme, which is commissioned by Public Health. Because of the work we're doing with schools and young people, we were asked to be part of the partnership to help bring to life what's happening in education and highlight what the issues are. We’re trying to engage young people in healthy lifestyles.

 

Through our fuel poverty work, we encounter people in real need. If we can improve their food systems and their food security, then that benefits them. We're also part of a social prescribing project as well. If we can be healthier as individuals then that's brilliant. And if we're growing more food, then that's better for biodiversity in our green spaces and natural environment too.

 

How has being involved in the partnership benefited your work?

It has provided us with a platform to talk about the work we're doing in schools. It’s helped us to be recognised as part of a wider contribution towards public health in the local community, and it’s also enabled us to give young people a voice. Because again, we look at everything from our own perspectives, and we don't always consider a different point of view. The network is constantly building, which means we're challenging our perceptions across different areas all the time. And we're having that wider impact in areas that maybe we hadn't even considered or thought about in the past.

 

Are there benefits to starting healthy eating conversations at a young age?

Absolutely. We've also been part of the national campaign, Bite Back, which is handing power over to young people in communities and in schools. We have worked with youth organisations outside of formal education. One of the ideas they came up with was to ban junk food advertising in buses and around school areas. And actually they advocated so well for this that they won a community champion prize and have influenced policy decisions. That’s a great example of how a small seed of thought has grown wider and influenced change for all young people.

 

Does achieving the Sustainable Food Places award have the potential to change people’s perceptions of food in the city?

We hope it opens people's eyes to the fact that junk food shouldn’t be the norm. It’s about everything in moderation. If we can start to change some of those perceptions around it, then that's a good thing. These are habits that we're creating for life - not only in young people, but within their family unit. If we can harvest those good habits now, then it has a knock-on effect. We're improving attitudes and awareness, but actually we need to connect people back to the origins of where our food comes from too so that people are eating more locally, more seasonally, and impacting the local economy.

 

● www.pect.org.uk

● healthyschoolscp.org.uk

● eatthemtodefeatthem.com

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Farmer Tom Martin - Village Farm

 

Can you explain more about what you do?
Our farm is just west of Peterborough, in the village of Haddon. I describe it as a medium-sized family farm with a community garden. Our main enterprises are arable: wheat, barley, beans, rapeseed and a few other crops - largely for the commodity markets. Then we have some grass and conservation areas for wildlife and sheep grazing. We're regenerative farmers, which means we employ a number of regenerative techniques to improve our soils. We're passionate about education, which we term as ‘helping people to see what happens on the other side of the farm gate’. Farming is a remarkable place at the moment. People have never known less about where their food comes from, but they've never been more interested.

 

We do lots on social media, host farm walks, and run events. One of the fun things we did this summer was a dusky night-time bat walk, in association with the local Wildlife Trust. Our big five here are fox, hare, badger, owl and deer and we managed to see four of those as we walked around. We also run Farmer Time, which is a charity we founded that links farmers with classrooms through video calls. So we've got 1,000 farmers around the UK, reaching 25,000 schoolchildren. For us, Peterborough Food Partnership helps to get the message out there about farming too.

Why should people become more connected to where their food comes from?
I think there's three reasons. One is that it's important on a national, political level. People need to know why they can be proud to buy British produce versus imported. I think it's really important on a local level for people to just understand where their food comes from. On a personal level, I think the land is deep in all of us. Some people would describe it as a spiritual connection. We run our community garden and we have a dozen or so families who attend sessions. The parents love it and the kids are getting their hands into the soil. I think that's a deep connection; that drive and that draw is in all of us.

 

Why did you get involved with the Peterborough Food Partnership?

People aren't being marketed to, it's something they want - to get closer to where their food comes from. For us as farmers, I think historically we've been isolated and insulated by supermarkets. You end up with people not caring less, but understanding less about where their food comes from. As a nation we're less healthy than our parents and grandparents were. So we’re helping to bridge that gap by getting people out into the countryside. It's also keeping money in the rural economy, which is so important at a time when our cash flow is just being crushed.

 

Q. What has been your proudest community or food-related achievement so far?

It's just been amazing to see people go, ‘Wow, you're doing all these things and it's making a difference’. For me, it's just a real pleasure walking around the farm. We're farming more carefully than we have in 100 years. And that's no disrespect to previous generations. They've farmed as the government has inspired them to, which is just produce as much as you can. I love walking around the land and being part of it.

 

● www.village-farm.com

● www.farmertime.uk

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Nathan Higgins - Founder, Chef de la Maison

 

Where does your interest in food come from?

I started as a dishwasher at a local pub. From the moment I went into the kitchen, I just loved looking at what the catering team were doing and being part of it. From there I went to culinary school at Peterborough Regional College and learned more about the technical side of cooking and how to translate that into a business. Chef de la Maison is now 27 years old. We are a catering and hospitality company, doing everything from barista style portable coffee to food trucks, and a lot of special event catering for corporate events and weddings.

 

How did you come to be involved with the Peterborough Food Partnership?

It actually came about following an occasion that went wrong for me! I was catering for a school event in Peterborough and I happened to get the date wrong. I was a week early. The food ended up going in the bin that day. My daughter said to me, ‘Dad, you can't be doing that!’ And it really bugged me. So then I found Flourish Peterborough and Lauren helped me to do better and find alternative ways to reduce food waste.

 

Has your interest in sustainability grown since being involved with the partnership?
Before the pandemic, I felt like it was something that I would say and not do. Whereas now the passion is there 100%. We’ve really stepped up and done everything from worm farms, to composting egg shells, to managing our food waste a lot better. We're not just throwing things into a black bin. I think the biggest impact for us is that we want to continue getting better because of the feeling it gives us.

 

Do you think there are real benefits to be gained from linking together more closely with other people working in the city?

Definitely. I volunteer with the city’s soup kitchen, so I know the impact within communities you can have by working together. I didn't realise how many local charities there were until the Peterborough Food Partnership introduced me to more people. I'm proud of the company we are because we're trying to do the right things. It's really impactful. For example, if I was catering for an event and had surplus food, I now know where I can take that surplus food within just one phone call rather than wasting it. It's a positive step in the right direction.

 

What do you think the public’s perceptions of the city’s food scene are?

I think the challenge Peterborough (and the country as a whole) experiences is that many of the biggest food players tend to be fast food brands. But if you're talking about good quality gut health, microbiome, and food sustainability, it's buried beneath the surface a little bit. We do local, whole food menus, thinking about your mind and gut health. It's just that it's so small scale compared to the big players. But change is definitely happening.

 

● www.chefdelamaison.co.uk

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David Norton - Public Health Improvement Officer, Healthy Places

 

Can you explain how the Public Health Service came to be involved with the Peterborough Food Partnership?

Our current food system is linked to some of our biggest challenges: climate change, reduced biodiversity, obesity, ill health, food poverty, and waste. All are relevant to Public Health and each problem is complex. To act on food effectively, partnerships, co-operation and collaboration are essential.

 

In March 2024, the Public Health Service (then a shared service between Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council) commenced its funding of the Peterborough Food Strategy project. This followed a motion at Council when it was envisaged that a collaborative ‘Food Strategy’, similar to the ones adopted by Brighton and Hove and Haringey councils, would allow Peterborough to become a city with a vibrant food culture, renowned for high quality, sustainable food and offering a rich variety of local produce enjoyed by all. It was resolved that there would be an independent project chair, and that Public Health would be the lead department.

 

The project outcomes include creating a food strategy with a diverse range of stakeholders that represents the needs of the city. We want to build an engaged city of good food citizens, raising awareness of environmental issues and healthy food through education, engagement, and supporting the development of new initiatives. We want to support the tackling of food poverty and diet-related ill health. We want an emphasis on food that values local and sustainable produce and independent businesses, as well as working towards food equality where a range of affordable and sustainable food choices are available.

 

What do you think the resulting strategy will manage to achieve for the city?

It will address the causes of food inequalities in Peterborough, prioritising those with least access to healthy food and encouraging the production and sale of local food.

 

A ‘Food Strategy’ identifies actions to help enhance our current food system and prepare for the future. Key elements include environmental sustainability, healthy eating, economic and community growth and social justice. More specific topics may include growing, rearing or foraging for food, processing food, preparing food for consumption for households and the food service industry, eating food and composting the remains.  

 

● www.sustainablefoodplaces.org

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Luke Payn - Community Garden Projects Manager, Westraven Cafe and Community Garden CIO

 

Why did you want to get involved with the food partnership?

Lauren, from Flourish Peterborough, has been working with Westraven for quite some time, delivering different projects for us. The Peterborough Food Partnership really fits with our charitable objectives around social inclusion, environment, health and wellbeing, and youth employability. All these strands overlap and interlock.

 

Can you explain more about why Westraven focuses on food in the city?

Westwood and Ravensthorpe traditionally fit into the metrics of being deprived in various ways. We help to tackle this by providing low cost food where residents can be sociable, avoid social isolation, and build a community around them. Through a shared eating and growing experience, people can talk about their experiences of food, their childhoods, the likes and dislikes and and just discover more about each other’s lives. It's a universally positive experience that brings people together from all backgrounds. And it shows that health and wellbeing isn't just a list of vitamins and minerals - there's a social element too.

 

Why is the Peterborough Food Partnership important for the city and its residents?

I think it's important because in terms of sort of national and global events, things are very fragile and volatile. If we don't have a plan, we're going to be more susceptible to big shocks and changes in the system. We need to be able to adapt quickly. A range of tools, connections, and different ideas that you can draw on in those moments of crisis help to build resilience into the food system.

 

Do you think Peterborough has a reputation for food?

It's hard to know how you're perceived, isn't it, from the outside? Whether it’s food, industry, culture, arts - we’re not very good at selling ourselves! Hopefully, these strategies will help to slot us together, because we’ve got a lot going for us.

 

What has been your proudest community or food-related achievement so far?

In the summer holidays we had a ‘Harvest Feast’ involving six families spanning three generations. They went into the growing areas and picked carrots, beetroot and lettuce leaves and they all got really excited looking at the different colours and shapes. Then they washed the vegetables, chopped them up, and made a meal as a family. And it was just a real delight to watch, seeing the children connect with the experience. That’s a memory they're going to have and a relationship with the land that will be part of their DNA. It’s a really powerful thing to give someone.

 

● www.westraven.co.uk

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Editor’s notes

 

*In 2023, Peterborough was named the unhealthiest place in Britain in a report by Blue Horizon Blood Tests