Greater Manchester builds on today’s hard work to launch a Sustainable Food Vision for the future. 
Despite a night of atrocious weather, forty representatives from Greater Manchester food organisations made it to Bridge 5 Mill in East Manchester to enjoy the gorgeous ‘Unlikely Heroes’ farmer photo exhibition and launch the Sustainable Food Vision for Greater Manchester.
Food Pioneers from as far afield as Buxton and Bolton came together from across Greater Manchester to celebrate the culmination of 18 months’ work and the input of a hundred community groups, small businesses and the public sector to imagine a sustainable food future for our great city.
The Vision is the product of many hundreds of volunteer hours and several Feeding Manchester conferences, brought together by the team at Manchester’s Kindling Trust. It contains examples and ideas from all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, and explores the benefits of, and actions required, to transform Greater Manchester into a Sustainable Food City.
The Vision contains 26 desired outcomes all built around the Sustainable Food Cities core objectives of:
• Promoting Healthy and Sustainable Food
• Tackling food poverty, diet-related ill health and access to affordable healthy food
• Building Sustainable Food Knowledge, Skills, Resources and Projects
• Promoting a Vibrant and Sustainable Food Economy
• Transforming Catering and Food Procurement
• Reducing Waste and the Ecological Footprint of the Food System
The result is 161 possible actions, that are based on the ambitious practical examples of 125 projects that are delivering environmental, health and economic benefits for our City right now – something we can be very proud of.
Food Pioneers involved in writing the vision collectively serve over 34,000 customers and beneficiaries on a monthly basis, employ over 300 people and have a combined annual turnover of £28 million!
Chris Walsh, from The Kindling Trust, said:
“What can only be described as the most thorough and ambitious vision for a greater Greater Manchester to come from the grassroots organisations in recent years, we are very proud to have played our part. These Food Pioneers support and engage thousands of people each week, employ hundreds of people and contribute many millions of pounds each year to a growing local food economy. We hope our political representatives and public servants can find their way to supporting this Vision and helping to make Greater Manchester the truly sustainable food city that it both needs and has the great potential to be.”
The Sustainable Food Vision for Greater Manchester can be found at: www.feedingmanchester.org.uk/SustainableFoodVisionforGtrMcr
For further information, contact 0161 818 8384, or email: [email protected]