Councils taking action to prioritise good, sustainable food in the North East

NORTH-EAST councils are piloting a project which will see a drive towards more healthy and sustainable food for people living in the region.

Thanks to support from the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) and sustainable food partnerships, the North East has been selected to be the regional partner for Good Food Local over the next three years.
Good Food Local is a project run by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, which has been working with local authorities in London for over 10 years to track data the availability of healthy and sustainable food.

It is now keen to roll the scheme out nationwide.
The project will include agreeing on a North East Good Food framework and benchmarking programme to encourage local authorities to make commitments to good food across the region.
Sustain’s definition of good food is food that is produced, processed, bought, sold and eaten in ways that provide social benefits and that contribute to thriving local economies that create good jobs and secure livelihoods.

Good food should also enhance the health and variety of people’s diets as well as the plants and animals that feed on them and it should protect natural resources such as water and soil and help tackle climate change. 
Amanda Healy, Durham County Council’s director of public health and chair of ADPH North East, said: “Across the North East councils have an important role to play in creating a more healthy and sustainable food system so residents can access affordable, healthy ,and climate and nature-friendly food.
“To reduce health inequalities and close the gap between the most and least affluent people in our country, we need to understand the current situation within the North East in comparison to other regions.

“Benchmarking good food at a regional level will help to provide this understanding.”

Bella Driessen, Sustain’s local policy coordinator, said: “The survey has the power to completely transform a council’s approach to food, with demonstrable impacts for its local community.

“One council that first completed the form in 2015 was at the bottom of the rankings.

“By being able to demonstrate to the council just how far behind it was slipping, through learning from the case studies of leading councils, and by accessing the network of peer-support built up around the report, this council now sits among the leading councils.”
Joe Dunne, chair of the Middlesbrough Food Partnership, said: “There is an extremely strong appetite for good food in the North East.

“The food partnerships have been working on the good food agenda for over 12 years and the North East has the perfect mechanism for collaboration on healthy and sustainable food issues that are best addressed on a regional rather than local scale.”
For more information on Good Food Local, visit www.sustainweb.org/good-food-local:
The Association of Directors of Public Health North East (ADPH NE) represents the Directors of Public Health for all 12 local authorities in the North East.
The Good Food Local North East programme will provide a Good Food framework and benchmarking system for the following councils: Redcar & Cleveland, Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Durham, Newcastle, Sunderland, South Tyneside, Northumberland, Gateshead, and North Tyneside.

The project is run by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming with funding from Impact on Urban Health.