The recent succession of severe storms has urged the team at the online North Lancs Food Hub, Gather, to ask people to spread the love for local food and those working to put healthy, seasonal fayre on our tables.
Whilst Gather has been taking a mid-winter break, food producers and growers have been battling record-breaking storms and are having to adapt their working practices constantly to ensure food can get to plates, that their staff say safe, and their businesses remain viable.
Since December, North Lancashire has experienced frequent severe storms and this has highlighted the urgency to develop a local food system that works in harmony with nature and better able to withstand the erratic weather patterns caused by climate change.
Stormy winters saturate the ground increasing the risk of soil damage, and rotting produce whilst storms in other parts of the world can increase costs for ingredients or make them unavailable. Unseasonal weather patterns affect breeding cycles across the plant and animal chain which in turn affects food production and availability. All the food producers at Gather are invested in regenerative farm and food practices, so they are producing healthy, nutrient-dense food which is good for people, place and the planet.
One of the key adaptations to increase the viability of these small-scale businesses has been to join forces and work together as a collective entity – and that is why Gather exists. By working collectively, producers can focus on what they do best – producing high quality, healthy food, pooling their knowledge to adapt to challenges, and giving them the power to determine realistic prices for their food.
” ‘”Building a local food system that links producers directly with consumers is probably the single most crucial thing we can all do to restore nature and our collective sense of self-determination and purpose,” Bill Grayson, from the Morecambe Bay Conservation Grazing Company, explains.
Jo Haughton from LESS CIC, the Gather Food Hub Communications Coordinator added, “Food has always been the ultimate token of love – and by buying food through Gather, people can help create a healthy, resilient food system for their community which is better protected from the global shocks of climate change’’
You can read more about how Gather’s food producers are adapting to the effects of climate change in the Spring edition of Thrive North Lancashire Magazine – FoodFutures, which is out soon.
Gather, the North Lancs Food Hub, is a pilot for a new online food hub which provides an easy way for local people to buy local, seasonal and healthy produce. When people shop at Gather, they are joining a local community working together to build a healthy, resilient local food economy, complementing and supporting existing enterprises and strengthening the viability of small local producers across the region.
Gather is part of the wider FoodFutures family and encompasses the values of the Good Food Manifesto aiming to sell food which is good for people, place and planet. The project is coordinated by LESS (Lancaster District) CIC in partnership with eggcup and is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
FoodFutures North Lancashire is FoodFutures is North Lancashire’s award winning Sustainable Food Place initiative. It is made up of representatives from the local farming community, local food businesses, the public sector, Lancaster City Council, NGOs, community food groups and our local academic institutions.
This partnership of people from across North Lancashire’s food system are working together to create “A thriving local food system that is healthy, resilient and fair”. The partnership organises seasonal markets in Lancaster every three months.
Eggcup is a charity which stops surplus food from going to waste and gets it to people instead. They run a low-cost, weekly food scheme that helps members to save money on food, making life more affordable for those in the local community on a tight budget. Eggcup are the logistics partner working with LESS CIC to administer and deliver Gather’s food orders.
• Gather reopens on Friday 7th February with first deliveries on Friday 14th – Valentines’ Day – further information at www.gatherhub.uk
• More information about Gather available on the project website at gatherhub.uk | Read the 2022 feasibility report by Sustain here
• FoodFutures North Lancashire is online at foodfutures.org.uk
• More information about Eggcup can be found at eggcup.org