Officer to lead food strategy

Councillors agreed to the recruitment of a new policy officer for food development at a recent meeting of the Community and Enterprise Resources Committee.

The post has been created to ensure that food initiatives are delivered in a comprehensive way, are co-ordinated with the council’s partners and will tie in with pilots being undertaken by Education Resources for school breakfast and summer holiday lunch clubs.

Among a number of initiatives proposed, the new officer will oversee development of a community food plan and food forum; enhancement and support of allotment and food strategies and an investigation of a food procurement partnership to source more locally produced food.

Councillor John Anderson, committee chairman, said: “Unfortunately, community food initiatives are increasingly responding to demand from people experiencing the most severe effects of food poverty.

“The council has been active on food issues including improving hygiene standards in restaurants, implementing a new food waste collection service to recycle food waste, and running healthy eating and nutrition programmes.

“The creation of this post is a further demonstration of our commitment to tackling food poverty, to promote the good health of all residents, and ensure that the way we produce, consume and distribute our food has minimal negative impacts on the environment.”