Report attached.

Contact: Emily Fay, Food Poverty Alliance

Emily Fay, the Food Poverty Alliance Co-ordinator, and Katie Anderson, Project Manager for Shrewsbury Food Hub introduced and amplified their report (copy attached to the signed Minutes) which set out the Shropshire Food Poverty Action Plan.  It was explained that food poverty was a growing problem in Shropshire with an estimated 27,000 households being affected by changes in the benefits system.  Research has shown that Shropshire Residents would lose approximately £102m per year which was an average of £550 per working age adult.

The Shropshire Food Poverty Alliance was formed in 2018 to tackle this issue and membership included Shropshire Council, the NHS, Foodbanks, Age UK, and Citizen’s Advice Shropshire.  The Alliance have developed a 12-point Action Plan in order to enhance support for people in crisis, to prevent food poverty and to increase awareness.  The Alliance was seeking resources to continue co-ordination of this vital piece of work.

Attention was drawn to the research carried out in 2018 across the county to map current provision, identify gaps and potential solutions.  The research involved a lot of participatory work, including workshops, online surveys, and interviews to find personal experiences.  The key findings highlighted that food banks were consistently seeing more people come through their doors which had real implications for health across the County. The cost of food had risen by 28% whilst average wages rose by only 5%.  It was highlighted that some schools really struggled with this issue with pupils attending school not having had breakfast, nor having sufficient food for lunch, parents not being able to afford to buy fruit and vegetables etc.

The Alliance was seeking support for the Action Plan and for the Board to consider the resources that may be available to support it.  The Clinical Chair, Shropshire CCG informed the Board that the impact on Health and Wellbeing could not be played down and he confirmed that the CCG would be happy to work with the Food Poverty Alliance.  The Director of Performance and Delivery would put them in touch with the relevant programme leads.

A brief discussion ensued in relation to volunteers and how they could be used flexibly eg the working population could be requested to provide evening and weekend cover.  Assistance was offered by a number of officers/organisations who agreed to make contact outside of the meeting.

In response to a query about how engaged the supermarkets were, it was confirmed that food was collected from about 15 supermarkets in Shrewsbury and were distributed between about 50 community groups.  However, it was restrictive in getting the community organised to deliver food and that although surplus food was useful it was also random and only a small part of the solution.

In conclusion, the Chairman felt that the Alliance approach was to be applauded and particularly welcomed the initiative to improve cooking and nutrition skills especially in schools.  The Chairman requested an update on how things were progressing in a few months’ time.